Intern Diaries: The Lanthorn
One of the benefits—one of the very few benefits—of going to a school with a small journalism program instead of a dedicated journalism school is that competition for positions at the school newspaper is relatively low. So, when I rollerbladed across campus with my friend Dave in the fall of my sophomore year to put in my application and caught wind on an uneven crack sending me flying and resulting in three inch bloody scrape on my forearm, my disheveled self still landed the new features writer position.
By the following semester, I applied for a coveted spot on the news team and got it. I wrote three stories before I pitched my piece on the over-crowding bus system responsible for shuttling kids from off-campus living to class daily. It was something I witnessed on a daily basis as an off-campus resident. I didn’t want more crappy quotes from students recalling that crappy moment when a bus drove past their stop, already full, when it was already a crappy day. Like, man, you have no idea how crappy that is. I wanted this to be a story that would inform and prompt change, but first I wanted to know exactly what the problem was. I called each off campus apartment complex for numbers and talked to the bus service provider in Grand Rapids for details. When my story hit the front page, it exposed the real issues—due to new apartment developments, 2,000 more students were relying on the bus this year, yet the bus service company was still only providing eight busses. I wrote a few follow-ups eventually seeing an additional route and several new busses come to campus. So not crappy!
Later that month, I started writing a weekly column for the paper as well. This was my 500-word slice of heaven. I loved that I could show a little spunk instead of sticking to the straight-laced news reporting style. I spent hours thinking up topics that would appeal to everyone on campus, and though I always got a kick of putting the columns together, they never made it to the cult-following I dreamt of. One column did make a splash elsewhere, though. Unbenounced to me, my column on politically correcting Santa’s traditional ‘ho ho ho’ was up for a Michigan Press Association award. A few months later, the editor-in-chief and staff advisor of the paper handed me a first place award for best column in our division.
The following semester I picked up additional responsibilities as a copy editor—which meant many long night and weekend hours in our florescent-lit basement office. A few months later the news editor position opened, but to my editor’s surprise I kept my name out of the running. I had spent a year at the paper, with multiple different tasks and close to 50 published stories under my belt. I wanted to explore opportunities off campus, out of the basement, and with a digital focus. The semester after I left the paper a new, beautiful office was built—with windows and real work spaces and all. Crappy.
Links to my favorite Lanthorn content:
11/29/07 | Ho-ho-ho is now the new no-no
10/11/07 | Route 48 solves over-crowding on buses
9/17/07 | How much is a free ride worth? (and Pg. 2)