SRL alumni jump start their careers with PBS station internships
Opiate abuse, algae spills and activism.
At first glance these topics don’t appear to have anything in common, but they are all stories being explored by Student Reporting Labs alumni interning at local PBS stations around the country.
From left to right: Evan Gulock, Kennedy Huff and Nicholas Weiss
Kennedy Huff is spending the summer at KLRU-TV in Austin. Interested in stories about race and activism, she produced a story about local millennials mobilizing against racial injustice. “Being a teenager covering such serious topics is massive to me,” she says.
Much of her research is done through social media. She notes that people her age offer “a new perspective to journalism because of their involvement in social media, which has proved to be a great source to find out about stories and the latest things happening.”
“Before anything else, I was a writer and never realized until working with PBS and SRL how much I enjoyed letting a story unfold in front of me,” he says.
Working at the local station is the logical next step. “You can only do so much research before actually being behind the steering wheel and feeling how the machine works,” he says.
“Stories used to be passed down so we could survive, and now they’re passed down so we can thrive,” he adds.
Nicholas Weiss is interning with WITF in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He is the youngest person at the station, years younger than its other interns, and feels inspired to educate himself.
“When you’re out living the story and not just reading it, it gives you a unique feel for the political landscape, which is exciting to be at the front of,” he says. Nick will use the money for college and calls his internship “the most ideal opportunity in the field.”
All three interns are awed by their inspiring coworkers and Evan says it’s a win-win for the students and stations, “because we’re the next generation, and we’ll be the ones running these businesses, corporations and studios [one day].”
The SRL station internships are made possible by a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s American Graduate: Let’s Make it Happen initiative.