Jack Simon interned with his local newspaper, the Coronado Eagle and Journal, to explore sports journalism and build his network.
Why did you choose this internship?
When considering an internship for this summer, I knew that I wanted to do something in sports. Throughout my three years at the University of Arizona, I have also grown very fond of writing and journalism. When I saw that this internship was available and I would be able to write about sports, I knew that it was what I wanted to do. This internship combines my love for both sports and journalism into one thing and I have enjoyed every minute of it.
What kind of work did you do throughout your internship experience?
This internship allowed me to participate in every aspect of the newspaper and journalism business. The first and most obvious requirement of my internship was to write stories about sports and anything sports-related (you can read some examples of my stories here and here). When writing a story, oftentimes you have to get an in-person interview with the person that you are meeting with. Learning how to interview people was a big part of my internship and an experience that I'm glad I was able to partake in. Although my main job was to write about sports, I also got the opportunity to write about many other cool things that I enjoyed. One of those things was the Navy parachute team jumping into Coronado for the 4th of July.
What was the most significant contribution you made?
The most significant contribution that I made was my flexibility to work on whatever was needed. Some weeks were busier than others, which required more stories to be written at a certain time. When these busy weeks would come around, I could be assigned any number of stories at any time and my ability to get those stories done on time helped the paper. For those reasons I think that my ability to do whatever was needed made a contribution to the Coronado Eagle and Journal.
What did you find challenging about your internship?
Although I really enjoy this internship, there were definitely things that challenged me along the way. The biggest thing that challenged me was getting in all of my work on time every week when the amount of work varied from week to week. Some weeks I would have more work than other weeks so managing my time correctly and getting everything done was of the utmost importance. The journalism business can also be stressful because you want to make sure your work is as high quality as possible considering how many people are going to be reading it every week. From these challenges, I was able to learn a lot about how to manage my time better in a work setting. I was also put under some stress so learning how to deal with that will be very important for my future endeavors.
What was your favorite part of your internship?
My favorite part of this internship was getting the opportunity to report on sports in Coronado and San Diego. Getting the opportunity to write stories about things that I truly enjoy helped me to understand what it is that I want to do in the future. The most satisfying part of my internship was getting feedback from not only the people that I work with but people around the community that have read my stories. Having people that you respect tell you that your work is good is a very nice feeling and motivates you to do the best you possibly can.
How has your internship experience influenced your plans for your future?
This internship experience that I was able to partake in over the summer has influenced a lot of my plans for the future. I now know that I want to work in the sports industry and that's something that I'm seriously considering pursuing when I graduate from the University of Arizona. Although I really like writing about sports, that may not be the alley in the sports industry that I plan on continuing to pursue. This experience has also influenced my plans for the future because it has given me more perspective on the type of jobs that are out there for me and given me some more options that I wasn't aware of before. The people that I met along the way helped shape my experience and they have got me excited for the future of my career, whatever that may be.
What advice do you have for other students as they search for their internship?
The most important advice for other students looking to search or begin their internship is to apply to as many internships as possible. Although there are a lot of internships out there, there are also a lot of people looking for them. It's very important that you apply to everything that intrigues you so that you have a better chance at getting one of those internships. This advice was given to me before I started my search for an internship and it really helped me out along the way. The second piece of advice is to keep an open mind when going through the process. You may stumble upon an internship that doesn't seem very interesting initially but could actually be a very cool experience.