What It's Like to Intern at Patch

It is no falsity that some of the greatest lessons are learned outside the classroom.

Over the past two weeks I have been interning at the Ladue-Frontenac Patch with the editor Jim Baer as my mentor, and it has been one of the most rewarding experiences. 

My first assignment was to go to Passport Luggage and interview the manager about summer travel.  I had never conducted an interview before, so this task seemed a little daunting.  But he was very helpful, and miraculously I was able to read my notes later to write an article about it. 

The most challenging part of this assignment was organizing the points I wanted to make in the article.  I took several shots of pieces of luggage, but I didn’t include people in the pictures, which Jim told me is a fundamental in journalistic photography. 

I was sure to include people in my pictures for the next article I wrote, which was about the tennis matches that qualified two MICDS boys for the state tournament.  It was interesting to interview my friends in a professional approach.

I then went to FroYo, my new fetish, to ask the owner which flavors and toppings are the most popular and what combination is her favorite.  This assignment was exciting to me since I already knew so much about their frozen yogurt and I go there all the time.  Another store I frequent that I had the chance to visit is The Service Bureau. 

There I asked about items that would make for a special gift for a graduate.  My article was a little short, as I was struggling with how to make an article to the point and not too long so that the reader loses interest.

I also had the opportunity to see Jim in action, interviewing Old Warson Country Club golf pro Rick Ewing.  This interview was videotaped and was a different style than I had been accustomed to.  I learned to break up a lengthy video into shorter segments to keep the interviewer’s attention.  Jim also taught me how to publish articles and photos on the website, and I learned some terminology, such as cutline, the caption of a photo, and dek, the summary below the headline.

I learned so much during my time at the Ladue-Frontenac Patch and had some truly valuable experiences.  Jim was so accommodating and patient with me and my interest in journalism has definitely peaked because of him and my involvement with Patch.