Internship Journal

July 5, 2011.

Well, today was my first day of internship at Hofstra University. I have to say I had a lot of fun and I love to meet new people with the same interests as me. We learned how to use a FlipVideo which was pretty easy to use, and after, we were able to interview our partner, who in my case was Sarah Chishti.  Mario Gonzales, a reporter from Newsday,  came to talk to us about his job and how to use a professional video camera. It seems like a lot of fun and thanks to him I am even more convinced of the fact that I want this to become my profession. I would love to have a job that doesn’t require me to stay behind a computer or in an office all day everyday. Mario seemed very content with his job and he made it seem as if this was a profession that is very rewarding.

I still want to pursue my dream of becoming an investigative journalist although I know that there are many risks in this profession. However, after hearing Mario speak to us about “videography” that would be a job that I would definitely look into.

July 6, 2011.

Today was the second day of my internship at Hofstra and I learned as many, if not more, new things as I did yesterday. This morning Mario Gonzales came again and went over our video interviews. He told us what we could have done better and what we were pretty good at. After, we had John McNally come and speak to us about how the education in Long Island isn’t doing its best. He spoke to us about how taxes on homes were not being evenly distributed across Long Island to each of the school districts. He also showed us charts and videos and I found his presentation very well prepared and interesting. I find it amazing how not many people know of the problems that Long Island is facing with its education but I hope that soon they will find a solution. At the end of his presentation we had to write our first news story and I had Joe edit it for me.

July 7, 2011.

Today we were able to create our own web pages. By next Wednesday we should have a whole web page ready to show Professor Morrow.  We also had a Senior Education Writer at Newsday, John Hildenbrand come and speak to us some more about the tax cap and how it could affect the schools in Long Island. We were also able to go to the library (10 FLOORS!) and do some research about the tax cap and how it will affect our specific school districts. I was able to print out 3 articles that I thought would be useful for the article that I am going to write. With all the information that has been provided to us, we should be able to compose some great articles.

July 8, 2011.

During internship we listened to Susan Murphy who is the assistant dean. She spoke to us about the proper way to interview our subject and how to react to certain things that happen. She also gave us a list of what to do and what not to do in certain situations and was very helpful. She had an interesting way to explain everything and by the end of our day, we were able to work some more on our articles. I was able to get the e-mail and phone number of the superintendent of District 26 which is my school district and I also made an outline with specific things that I would like to include in my article since I have too much information. I really enjoy doing this type of work.

July 11, 2011.

Today we were able to work some more on our articles and Professor Goodman went over our first articles. He told us what was good and not so good about them. We were also able to call people to set up interviews (although when I called they said they’ll call me back). We also had Mario from Newsday come over again and talk to us some more about his job as a videographer. He told us he attended Jeter’s 3,000 hit home run and that he had to think ahead of time in order to make sure that he (and his team) would be able to receive some great audio footage and pictures. I also thought about who I was going to interview for the profile we have to do and I decided to do it on my neighbor who plays electric guitar and was in various bands. I asked him if he was ok with me interviewing him and he said it was no problem, so I already  wrote down some questions that I should ask him. I am still loving this internship and I am having a lot of fun learning about journalism careers.

July 12, 2012.

Today I was able to start working more on my article. I got a lot of it done I just need to include some quotes from people that I need to interview. I haven’t heard back from any of the people that I called to interview but I’ll try to get into contact with them again today. I also have an interview for the profile I need to do either today or tomorrow. My article should be finished in about a day or two and it should turn out even better when I re-read it and fix any mistakes it might have.

July 13, 2011.

We went over our articles and the professor went to each of us one by one checking them. I corrected any mistakes that I had and then I was able to work on my website. I had to create a whole new website because the first one I made was kind of weird looking and I couldn’t find a way to fix it. But I made a new one and it came out exactly the way I wanted it to. I still need to add a few more things on it and keep editing it as my journalism career continues.  Once I get home I’m going to be able to do the profile that I need to do and I will have finished everything by tomorrow.

July 14, 2011.

I finished everything that I had to do pretty much. Professor Goodman looked over my tax cap article and edited it for the last time, yesterday I did the interview with Paul and I think it came out pretty good. I don’t really know how to speak on camera though. I guess that’s why I like print journalism better. I feel like I can express myself through writing WAY better than I can through talking. Which is why I write down a lot of the things that I really mean to say. I also finished the profile article of the interview with him and I just need someone to edit it and tell me what to fix. I’m actually pretty upset that this program is ending. I had a lot of fun and I learned so many things that I didn’t expect. It was a real privilege to be able to listen to and speak to the people that actually came and hosted press conferences with us. It was a completely new experience and the fact that no one here treated us like  “little kids” was even better.

July 15, 2011.

Today was pretty awesome!! We were interviewed by the Hofstra radio channel this morning. I didn’t really like it because I noticed my voice was cracking because I was nervous but other than that it was pretty cool. Then we went to lunch, ate and went straight to News 12. I really liked it. We were able to get a sample of what a real news station is like. I saw where the reporters do their job, and although it was a small cubicle it didn’t make me change my mind of wanting to become a reporter because they’re most of the time out in the field getting the stories and then typing them up. So that’s not really a problem. I had a lot of fun today, I enjoyed it a lot. I have to say that my favorite part was the actual news room where they give the weather and the anchor people do their job. That was pretty fun I have to admit. I wanted to take as many pictures as possible and I actually was able to take a couple luckily. Some with people, others by myself but I like them all. The blue screen made me see through which was pretty cool (HAHA) and I pretended to give the weather for a couple of minutes.

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