EJ Academy Finding the Right Fit for Journalism Fellowships By CALEB O’BRIEN


For aspiring environmental journalists, getting an internship can be a potential career-maker. Internships offer real-world expe- rience, contacts, clips and opportunities to develop new skills and deepen subject-matter expertise — all if young journalists can sur- vive the gauntlet. Will the gig be paid or unpaid? Is there more to it than getting


coffee? Will it help land a job later? Have no fear. I surveyed SEJ academics and current and former students to get tips on finding the best internships — and mak- ing the most of the experience.


Step 1: The job hunt When searching for intern-


ships, it’s important to get your priorities straight. What kind of experience does the newsroom offer? How much does money matter? Is getting experience at a top publication worth working for free? Doug Struck, senior jour- nalist-in-residence at Emerson College in Boston, suggests first


When searching for internships, she identified a few news- rooms whose missions dovetailed with her interests. She then fo- cused on the quality, not the quantity, of her applications. The gamble paid off: She landed at High Country News and will stay on this year as the editorial fellow. “An editor, or intern program manager, can differentiate between young journalists that are putting out several lines and applying everywhere,” Blankenbuehler says. “I think it’s better to home in on a specific goal or place or beat and start working toward that.”


Step 2: Getting the (right) job


While he was a student at the University of Missouri, Caleb O’Brien, right, filmed a short documentary about sweet potatoes and drones in Mwanza, Tanzania. Making the film helped him get subsequent fellowships and internships.


Photo by Bill Allen


that students avoid internships where they work remotely. “We en- courage internships in newsrooms where students will learn the machinations of journalism production, feel the beat of the deadline pulse and will, we hope, be under the eye of some veteran editors,” Struck says.


Struck also insists on either pay or credit. Getting neither “sounds like slavery to me,” he adds. But for Andrew Norman, the unpaid job was worthwhile. Norman graduated in 2000 from Michigan State University’s Knight Center for Environmental Journalism. As a student at MSU, Norman passed over a paying internship at the U.S. EPA in favor of an unpaid internship covering environmental legislation for Con- gressional Quarterly.


For him, the lost income was outweighed by the challenges and opportunities for professional development at Congressional Quarterly.


Now Norman is in a position to hire his own interns as the Ex- ecutive Director of Hear Nebraska, a nonprofit publication dedi- cated to the Nebraska music and arts scenes.


“What I always encourage students to do is focus on skills and experience growth, while they’re in the position to do so, instead of pay,” he says. “Focusing on the long game is a much smarter play than taking an internship that might pay well or might just be easy or comfortable.”


Finding the best fit was important for Paige Blankenbuehler, a 2015 graduate of the University of Missouri journalism master’s program.


There’s a broad consensus that clips and cover letters are both important factors in obtain- ing an internship interview. “The reality of journalism now is that there’s not a lot of handholding that takes place in these internships; they’re quite intensive,” says Dan Fagin, di- rector of the Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program at NYU and Pulitzer-


Prize winning author of the book “Toms River.” “Showing clips, or otherwise establishing your credibility, is really important.” A cogent cover letter can showcase writing and storytelling skills as well as demonstrate that an applicant is suitable for the po- sition. Fagin advises his students to develop a sharp, brief résumé, and a website as a convenient showcase for their work. Before an interview, students should do their research. “Take a really close look at the publication or the site to make sure that you’re familiar with what they do,” Fagin says. “The most obvious way to screw up an internship application is to display ignorance of the site.” To really wow a potential employer, interviewees can develop specific story ideas or coverage suggestions to illustrate how they would benefit the organization.


Should a journalist be talented and lucky enough to be offered more than one internship, the next challenge is selecting among the potential options. Fagin encourages his students to evaluate their options using five criteria: ● Clips: “There’s no underestimating how important those clips are,” he says. “Getting published is not difficult… but getting published in a good place is incredibly important.” ● Résumé power: Having a name-brand internship on a CV can help an applicant stand out to time-strapped editors desperate to cut through the onslaught of applications. ● Contacts: An EJ internship should offer opportunity to beef up one’s Rolodex — both with sources and journalism-industry contacts.


Continued on page 26 17 SEJournal Spring 2016


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