Practicum Internship
Summary
For my practicum I was an intern at an organization called COVID-19 Wall of Memories. This organization is focused primarily on memorializing COVID-19 victims on their website, by creating a virtual wall of pictures. Each picture tells the story about someone who has passed due to Covid. COVID-19 Wall of Memories also has a news page, which is called the COVID-19 Observer. This is where I primarily worked because I am a journalism major. Stories on the site are focused on Covid's impact on the United States. I was a staff writer for the site and wrote articles about things like teaching during the pandemic, the Class of 2021 graduating during the pandemic, and
hosting my own vaccine text banking event.
How I found the position
Since COVID-19 Wall of Memories is a smaller organization, I had not heard of it prior to starting my practicum. However, the Philip Merrill College of Journalism has a Google group, where job and internship opportunities are sent out almost daily. I saw that COVID-19 Wall of Memories was looking for writers, so I got in contact with the editor to see if she would also be open to doing internships. After doing an interview with her she agreed.
Since it is recommended to find a practicum that relates to your major I would suggest that future Media Scholars try to find similar resources like the one I used. Many departments at UMD send out information about internship opportunities, you just have to make sure you're signed up for the groups. The journalism school also has an internships and career director for example, so finding someone like that within your major could be very helpful.
What I Learned
My main focus during this internship was becoming a better journalist. I learned so much about becoming a better writer, how to write different types of articles, and how to get them to appeal to audiences. It was great to be able to apply concepts I learned in my journalism classes in real life and to build on them. My editor also taught me a lot about the editing process and how to effectively pitch articles. She also shared many resources with me that helped me find sources and information for articles. I will be able to continue using resources and lessons I learned in the future.Â
During the internship I also learned a lot about what goes into running a website and news organization. I had several meetings with the programmers of the website, where I learned about how they use social media ads and Google to get the site out there. When I first started the internship I wasn't expecting to learn so much about this side of the organization, but it was interesting to get to branch out from just writing.
How I Have Grown as a Student, Professional, and Person:
One of the biggest projects I worked on during my internship was organizing and hosting a vaccine text banking event. Throughout the month of June, the White House hosted a National Month of Vaccine Action and encouraged citizens to help get people vaccinated. I hosted a text banking event where participants texted friends, family members, neighbors, and more. We ended up reaching over 300 people during the event.
To prepare for the event I attended several text banking training sessions, hosted my own training sessions for others, and advertised the event on social media. Hosting this event made me a better communicator and public speaker.
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After hosting the event I received a thank you letter from the White House. Even though I wasn't asking for anything in return for hosting the event, receiving the letter made it feel like what I was doing had an impact. Writing stories only related to Covid and working on only Covid related projects was challenging, but it helped me realize even more how important the media is in times like this.
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I also wrote an article about my experience, which can be accessed below.
One article I wrote for the site was about high school seniors graduating during the pandemic. What I liked about this organization was that despite articles having to be about Covid, there was a lot of freedom to write about any topic I was interested in. For example, this article was about students, but I also wrote an article about my personal experiences. Writing articles for the site helped me grow as a journalist. I was able to practice my interviewing skills, got better at finding sources, and experienced writing for a professional organization.
Applying my skills
My practicum experience will be extremely helpful and beneficial for future internships and my eventual career. I am studying to be a journalist and I believe getting hands-on experience is the best way to learn the skills. Things like interviewing, writing, and promoting work on social media are skills that I am guaranteed to use in the future. No matter what specific field of journalism I go into or what kind of organization I work for, these are skills that every journalist needs to master. Even though I am still learning, I have grown a lot already and will now be able to keep working on these skills. During my internship, I learned a lot from my editor, who has been working as a journalist for years. She gave me a lot of advice not only about how to write good articles but also about working in the journalism industry. This internship was my first time writing for a publication outside of a school or university publication, and the skills and experience I gained will help me move on in my educational and professional life.
Future Plans
During the rest of my time at UMD, I plan to get more involved with the on-campus news organizations. I have been a staff writer for Her Campus at Maryland for the past two years, but I would love to branch out to some of the other organizations as well. As I am double majoring in German, I am planning to go abroad within the next two years as well. My goal is to do an internship at a German news organization in order to connect both of my fields of study. I also want to do more internships here to gain more experience, which will be helpful post graduation.
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After graduation, I want to start my career in journalism. I am planning to use my German and journalism skills to hopefully work as a reporter for a German news organization or as a foreign correspondent for an American organization in Germany. Although I haven't decided whether I want to stick to writing or move towards broadcasting, I definitely want to work in journalism.