[June 8th – 12th 2009] Final week of internship at the Edmonton Journal

… or technically my fifth week, if you add onto the three weeks I did during the Winter Break. (:

Articles I wrote for the week of June 8th – 12th:

• Partiers liable for hefty fines, June 9 09, A1
• Rec centre a boost to McCauley, June 11 09, B2
• Huggable Hero walks and talks the road to a cure, June 13 09, A17
• If mothers use drugs, open dialogue helps keep teens clean, June 13 09. A14
• Owen Schlosser’s death spurs friends, family to live better lives, June 18 09. B3

So I found that the stories I did for the week of June 8th-12th inspired/affected me in different ways.

The story I did about the city recognizing volunteer drivers made me want to volunteer my time more. The story I did about Sylvan Lake’s partiers, made me want to go to Sylvan Lake sometime this summer (and party responsibly, or else be fined, ha ha). The story I did about the new recreation centre encouraged me to stay fit and active. The story I did about the drug research reminded me that, hey I probably shouldn’t do drugs and I’m also glad my mom doesn’t too.. The story I did about the Huggable Hero, Connor Hibbard, reminded me that KIDS CAN BE AMAZING AND INSPIRING INDIVIDUALS!!!! And the story I did about Owen Schlosser made me realize life is short, and you really don’t know what’s going to happen so you really SHOULD live every day to your fullest. Be happy, be healthy, and love your friends and family.

I’m really glad I got an opportunity, especially, to do the story about Owen Schlosser and his family. It was a first experience for me, speaking to a family where a family member has just died. I felt that it was a really important story and I feel honoured really, to have met and spoken to Owen’s friends, brothers, and sisters, and I spent a lot of time making sure the article was just right before filing it.

I received kind and encouraging words from the assistant editor and the breaking news editor, who were both my supervisors for the duration of my internship. We also discussed how probably the splitting-up of the five week internship from winter break and post-semester, probably wasn’t the best idea. I was kind of the guinea pig in terms of that little split-internship experiment. I suggested that in the future, definitely offer the three weeks to a student because that is great experience for sure, but have it be separate from the five weeks at the end of the semester, because I found that my last two weeks literally just flew by. I was there and then it was over. While the three weeks during winter, I had been improving and progressing and momentum was being had, until the winter break ended and it was back to school and the momentum was lost.

All in all, it was a great internship, both this leg of it, and the prior winter break portion, and just overall. I learned a lot. I made a lot of contacts and reporter friends and acquaintances. I feel I became a better writer, and more professional. And I got some great clips to add to my portfolio and overall experience. If I didn’t have summer plans, I would have asked if I could stay longer, honestly.

Now I need to work on .pdf-ing my articles (both from this end of the internship and the winter break end), because I just checked the links from the winter break portion of my internship and all the links don’t work anymore!

Linda (: