By Maria Pawelczyk

 

All college professors say internships are a great way to gain experience and connect with people in your potential professional career.

But how true is that really?

This summer, I’m experiencing my first internship after just finishing my second year at SUNY Oswego.

I knew I needed an internship this summer. Not just because as a journalism major, it’s required — but also because I knew I could probably get some good experience.

I reached out to my academic adviser to see if he could help me.

Applying for internships is scary at first.

There are thousands of options and none of them seem like they could be the right choice or seem legit enough.

To help me get started, my adviser sent me a link to apply to the SUNY Institute for Local News (SUNY ILN) internship program. I also ended up applying for 15-20 other internships, which isn’t the ideal amount. But I started looking a little later than I should have and a lot of applications had closed. For reference, if you want a summer internship, make sure you finish your applications by mid-February.

I ended up hearing back from the SUNY ILN program and they had accepted me.

This is a program that takes journalism students from throughout the SUNY system and tells them that they can work at a news station anywhere in New York state and they will be paid.

Once I got accepted, I started emailing as many media and news companies as I could to see if they would give me a spot on their news team. By now it was March, so I was hitting a lot of walls of getting no responses or their internship spots already filled.

I was finally put in contact with Buffalo Toronto Public Media because they had a SUNY ILN intern there last summer. It was also one of the companies I had applied to while waiting to hear back from SUNY ILN. I ended up having my application processed. I was interviewed and they offered me a spot.

In June, I began my internship for their NPR station. I can certainly say that my professors were correct. I am gaining valuable experience in my future career; things I can’t learn inside of a classroom.

Before I started my internship, I didn’t have a lot of experience in writing for radio or audio editing. But now I have strengthened my skills in those areas. I have also had the opportunity to attend events with high-profile Buffalo-area people such as the mayor and our local congressman, Tim Kennedy.

I have also made great professional connections with my co-workers, all of whom helped me out immensely during my time at my internship. I am so glad that I listened to my professors and got an internship.

I know that my experience is slightly different than a lot of people’s. But I know from talking to co-workers and friends that they all say the same thing. They have all learned valuable things from whatever summer internship they decided to do.

Internships are as valuable as they say. I believe that everyone, if they have the opportunity, should apply and take that plunge. It can definitely be scary — but it is so worth it.