After 13 weeks of intense training, hundreds of interviews and publishing a total of 130 stories, the cohort of four reporters of the Michigan News Group Internship graduated from the program last month. This was the sixth consecutive summer of the internship program at WCMU Public Media.
This year's group included Masha Smahliuk, Lauren Rice, Courtney Boyd and Draya Raby, all students at Central Michigan University seeking a career in journalism.
Training the next generation of journalists is a love-hate relationship. I really enjoy opening young reporters' eyes to what is possible through local public radio and seeing them grow their skills in a short amount of time. But at the same time, I hate having to say goodbye after getting to know them and becoming a mentor.
It’s one of the necessary evils in our mission at the WCMU newsroom, which is to give students experience they need to land a job after graduation. Some of my favorite moments at WCMU have been when a former newsroom intern calls to tell me they got their first, full-time job in journalism.
The News Group is a unique opportunity that, to my knowledge, is unlike any other internship program in Michigan.
After two weeks of training on the fundamentals of audio editing, recording and broadcast writing at WCMU in Mount Pleasant, our four interns ventured off to local newspapers across our broadcast coverage area.
This year they were stationed at the Midland Daily News, Alpena News, Traverse City Record-Eagle and Cadillac News. They not only filed stories for both the paper and WCMU, but also learned, for the first time, what it’s like to work in the real world.
“I got a better sense of what it means to be a full-time, professional reporter,” said Lauren Rice, who was based at the Traverse City Record-Eagle. “This internship helped me understand what to look for in a work environment, and how I want to use my degree after graduation.”
Before our cohort headed back to CMU for fall classes, I asked them to pick their top two favorite stories, which was a tall order, considering the wide range of stories they were able to produce. I also asked them to reflect on what they learned from this experience.
You can read those stories and testimonials below.
“This has been the best summer in my life professionally. I just gained tons of experiences and learned so many big and small lessons. I learned that I loved radio and audio stuff, and that this is also a path I could go into, which was probably the most valuable lesson of the summer.”Masha Smahliuk, WCMU newsroom intern
“I would absolutely recommend this internship for other students because it's a fast way to get a better understanding of what you want and what kind of environments are going to provide that.”Lauren Rice, WCMU newsroom intern
“There were days I struggled to get a hold of any source, and there were days I would have 5-6 interviews in a row. But since I knew where to go next - how to write, how to edit the audio, setting up editing appointments - it made things easier no matter how the sources responded because I could keep the product organized and on track.”Courtney Boyd, WCMU newsroom intern
“The journalism process is very different in the real world versus a classroom, so every piece of the daily tasks was a learning experience for me. The practice interviewing was also very helpful, that's one of the scariest parts for me, and I can tell I learned since the start.”Draya Raby, WCMU newsroom intern
I'm so thankful for this group of young journalists. They came to WCMU on day one ready to learn and were hungry to get better. Time and time again I was impressed by them, whether it was their writing ability, story ideas or dedication to local news, this has been one of the best groups of students we've had since I've been at WCMU. Watching them grow as journalists has been one of the more fulfilling aspects of my professional career thus far. I cannot wait to see what's next for them.
