To be honest, the numerous internship opportunities in D.C. are the main attraction of the exchange program for me. I have participated in several internships in China and was mainly responsible for marketing, writing, and new media operation. It is the past internship experience that made me clear I want to work in the media industry after graduation.
To make my career transition easier, I need a high-quality internship in this industry. Fortunately, after a resume delivery and video interview, I was accepted by PBS's To The Contrary as a spring intern a month before this semester began. Now, after my one-month internship at PBS, I felt in my heart that I had made a great choice.
On the first day of the internship, one producer gave me a brief tour of the studio. We three interns and two producers work in the editing room. Across the hallway, there is the video room with a picture window, through which you can view the beautiful street scene of downtown. After the tour, I was assigned an intern handbook and a work email, and I started my internship. Every day at 9:30, my colleague Emma, who is also a student in WSP, and I would take the metro for half an hour to TTC's studio.
The first time I saw Tenleytown Station, I was taken aback by its depth. Because of its long history, it looks a bit shabby. 10:00 is the time to get to the office. If I get up late and don't have time for breakfast, I can head to CVS on the first floor for a snack. I usually spent the morning searching for news stories and posting them on websites and social platforms. There is an hour for lunch. It’s a good time for us to chat and share the latest tidbits we heard. Sometimes we also discuss the breaking news.
As for the afternoon, we usually start working at 1:30. The work content varies depending on the weekly broadcasting things. If there's a new women's talk show coming up that week, we'll write newsletters and send them to our subscribers. If there is a panel show for the week, we mainly collect news background materials and write a draft for the host.
I was in charge of writing interview questions for a mental-health interviewee recently and felt my writing skills were improved. Although producers sometimes have to work overtime, interns are allowed to leave at 5:30 PM. At the beginning of February, every time I left the office, the sky was blue and black, and I felt a sense of fulfillment when I looked at the people who came and went after work. Ah, I think this is the happiness of continuous progress towards your goals!
SAF Spring Correspondent Zichen Lin from Ocean University of China is reporting from American University.
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