For one of the recent Semester in Washington Journalism assignments students were asked to create a 1-2 minute haiku using a small Flip video camera. Watch and see what students came up with. If you had to make a video about yourself, what would you say? Take a look at what its like to live as a photography intern here in Washington DC.
Posts Tagged ‘Student Profiles’
My First Day as a Grown Up
Me At My First Day
Today I made “Katherine Mozzone” history when I completed my first day at my first REAL job. When I say real job, I don’t mean that I have never been paid for my labors before. In fact, I have worked several jobs during my career as a student, most of which were all for a year or longer. I suppose the key factor in determining what makes a REAL job is my status as a student. All of my previous jobs were part-time, retail positions. However, today I began a (soon to be) FULL-TIME position. Moreover, I am, technically, a college graduate!
So what is this amazing, super-fantastic, full-time position I’m raving about, you ask? I am a receptionist at NBC News channel in Washington D.C. Okay, so its not ideal. It’s not what I worked four, long years to become. In fact, I took issue with the idea that, while my friends were working as reporters and one-man-bands in “the middle of nowhere” Georgia, I was to be answering the phone and sorting mail hundreds of miles away. On the other hand, I’m not real keen on the idea of living in the middle of nowhere. I know you have to start somewhere but why not here? Why not D.C.? Is it because it’s one of the top markets in the United States? How about the fact that every professional reporter, producer, and nearly every professor I’ve ever spoken to says I have to start small and, unfortunately, I cannot say, with all confidence, that I don’t buy into their advice.
Then why did I take the job, right? Good question! I suppose I believe that times are changing. I’d like to believe the voices of those two professors who told me I DON’T have to start small in order to have a serious future in this business. Starting small equals the middle of nowhere and after a semester in D.C., I don’t know if I could handle a single stop light and the absence of Starbucks. What it all comes down to is a job as a receptionist is better than no job at all, especially in this economy!
~Katherine
The Best Thing That Has Ever Happened To Me
On Wednesday, March 25, I learned about President Obama’s virtual town hall meeting while I was at work at NBC News Channel. I liked the idea and knew that if I asked a question, it would be about making college more affordable. My two best friends, Kristen and Malorie, were in town during Kent State’s spring break, and when I got home from work, I asked them if they wanted to ask a question and submit it to the website. They kind of laughed it off, but around 6:00 p.m., I asked them again, and we began writing a question and recorded this video with my digital camera while sitting on Jenny’s bed:
After that, we continued with our evening. I posted the link on my facebook, and the next day at work, a producer watched the video and forwarded the link to a few more people in our office. My co-workers said they liked it and thought it was a good question.
During President Obama’s town hall, I was being filmed because I was a young person watching it on the computer while texting my friends. A reporter jokingly said, “When he answers her question, get ready to run so you can get her reaction on camera.” I had spent a lot of time going through the website voting on questions, so I immediately recognized two top questions that both received over 6,000 yes votes. Our video got 6 yes votes and 12 no votes, so I knew our question would not get played.
I began eating my peanut butter and jelly sandwich while watching the town hall meeting on my computer. I then heard one of our reporters and a producer yelling. They were watching the town hall on the NBC feed, so it was several seconds ahead of the internet broadcast. I heard the moderator of the town hall say “Alex from Ohio”, then I saw our video come on the screen.
I began shaking, and I couldn’t breathe. One of our photographers ran towards me, and other people in our office began looking at me and watching me freak out. It was such a meaningful and powerful moment in my life; something I don’t think I’ve ever experienced.
My reaction was caught on camera, and a reporter compared me to the announcement of Miss America. I was in total shock… I still can’t wrap my head around the idea that the President of the United States watched my silly video and looked at me and talked to me and listened to me and answered me.
The best part was after our video was played, President Obama said, “That was pretty well done!” The audience laughed and clapped.
The “Open for Questions” forum received over 104,000 questions. President Obama answered 4 typed questions and 2 video questions – including mine. The remainder of the questions were asked by people in the audience.
At work, the D.C. NBC News Channel package included me. It had my reaction and also a few good sound bites from Secretary Geithner and President Obama. The package ended with “Geither’s goal: blahblah. Obama’s goal: blahblah. Alex’s goal: taking a breath.”
Our office is shared with a reporter from the Columbus Dispatch, a reporter/photographer for Ohio News Network, and Telemundo, and they all wanted to include me in their pieces that day. Our managing editor contacted the person in charge of NBC stations in Ohio to inform them of what had happened. A little blurb about me was on the 11 o’clock news on the NBC Cleveland affiliate station, WKYC. Here are a few appearances of our video in the news:
CNN (We’re at 1:15)
I would like to thank Kristen, Malorie, my co-workers at NBC News Channel, everyone at the Semester in Washington Journalism program, my parents, and the White House staffer who first viewed our video and liked it.
You all made yesterday the best day of my life.
What’s Next After SIWJ?
It feels strange that I am leaving a few days; I kind of feel like I’m supposed to live here now. D.C. is such a great city; culture and history are infused in everything here…and it’s all so accessible. What a summer its been! Let’s just say it’s been almost 2 months since I drove a car, and I’ve grown to love public transportation.
I signed up for SIWJ with intentions of being solely focused on my internship, a position with the Office of Communications and Outreach at the U.S. Department of Education (DoED). All that mumbo jumbo simply means public affairs for the DoED. While I valued my time and learning experience at DoED, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the SIWJ classwork.
(P.S. That’s me INSIDE the White House gates, after my West Wing tour as a DoED intern!)
Learning how to edit video, make a piece of video journalism, and organize the process with a varied group of people was the highlight of the class for me. Through all the moaning and groaning of group work, I loved being creative in a completely different and digital way.
Now, I came at this program from a very different angle than most other students, as a recent graduate (of Harding University–go Bisons!) with a public relations and Spanish degree. I wanted to learn about the media in our classes and about public affairs through my internship. I was able to apply what I’d learned in classes and from guest speakers directly in my public affairs job.
One of my best pieces of advice for living here: make yourself a “business card” and hand them out to anyone interesting you meet–and keep in touch. Ask them advice about jobs, career paths, etc. Be saavy about it!
So what’s next? Next I’m moving to Mondéjar, Spain to be a culture and language assistant in Spain for the next 8 months or so. BUT, when I get back, I’ll have a good sense of where to look for a job, and I’ll have a wealth of contacts–from my classmates to my co-workers–all of whom have shaped my summer into the productive, self-discovering adventure that it’s been.
Learning About Yourself is Priceless
My experience here this summer has taught me so many things about the journalism field, and more importantly it taught me a lot about myself. I came into the program gung-ho about producing for news. All I wanted to do was be the person who got to play with the run down, organize the stories and compile them into the show we see on the newscast. But coming out of this program I have realized that what I thought was my dream job is actually very far from it. And it was not that my internship was bad, it was wonderful. Working at WTTG (local fox station) was a great experience. I got to go anywhere I wanted within the station and learn all aspects of broadcast news. But while there I realized I did not have the drive, the passion, for producing for news. And after talking with Amos I knew what direction I wanted to go in. I remembered that in my statement of interest for journalism school, and then again for the summer program talked about my other dream…
“After achieving a dual degree in journalism and history I would like to be able to produce historical and educational programming. By doing this I would be able to help people learn about a subject in which I am very passionate about. I would love to be able to have the opportunity to help others fall in love with history and its many exciting events…”
It was right in front of me the whole time. This was always a dream I thought I could have later on, after I had fulfilled my dream for the news. But I needed to pursue production for documentaries, maybe historical documentaries now. I watched them all the time as a kid with my dad. We would turn on the history channel and watch something on World War I or World War II. I was the kid in high school who loved watching those history clips your teacher turned on…I was never the one to fall asleep. And while I am disappointed in myself for not being able to love news production as much as I thought I would, I am happy that I still have time left at Georgia to explore other aspects of journalism. I am trying to enroll in a documentary class which will help me to learn more about that field.
I truly believe had I not come on this program I may not have had this realization until later on in life. After I had been at a production job I did not 100% love. I don’t want to be one of those people staring at my watch, waiting to leave work. I want to love every minute of it. Otherwise, is it really worth it? And by knowing where that love is not at, I can search for the place I will be truly happy. And if I do not find that place…well I may just have to make one up. After all, journalism is constantly evolving and changing. And I am excited to be a part of that change.
All I can say is that this program was worth every penny we payed because the knowledge and skills are wonderful and I know they will serve us well, but what we learned about ourselves is priceless.
~Jenny
