Job & Internship

March Internship Spotlight

Name: Tom Barton
Major: Jl MC
Emphasis: Print
Company: Des Moines Register, Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier, Racine Journal Times, Fort Worth Star-Telegram and Quad City Times

Duties: As a staff writer for the Des Moines Register I work on the Metro Iowa Desk covering breaking news, crime, city council meetings and community news features. Most of the work I do is covering breaking news around the state, writing web updates for the paper’s Web site and briefs for Dateline Iowa, along with producing centerpieces for the Metro Iowa section.

Most Memorable Experience: Unfortunately, my most memorable experiences involve covering tragedies. Others might cite meeting a famous celebrity or politician, but the truly remarkable people we meet in our lives are those whose perseverance give us hope and show us the resiliency of the human heart.

But, on a happier note, I have a fond memory firing a couple rounds on an MP5 assault rifle with the Racine, Wisconsin, SWAT team, while writing a feature on country singer Mark Wills, who unwinds before performances by spending quality time at the shooting range with local law enforcement.

I also made friends with a horse named "Skeeter" I rode on the 12-acre ranch I stayed at while working for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Special Contribution: I wrote a front page Sunday centerpiece for the Racine Journal Times about the struggles of a Wisconsin dairy farmer who went against his dying father’s wishes and took over the family farm. Most recently I covered a plane crash in Grinnell for the Des Moines Register and the first of two arrests made in a 20-year cold case homicide. I also wrote a series of articles following the stabbing of a Racine, Wisconsin, woman, and provided coverage on the increasing amount of violence that occurred in Racine in summer 2005, leading to a record-high number of homicides. At the Star-Telegram I helped cover a prayer vigil for a Grand Prairie, Texas, police officer who was shot and killed in the line of duty.

Advice to Future Interns: Participate in more than one internship. Employers are looking for experience and most internships require prior work in a newsroom.

Start looking early, and be willing to go anywhere. The experience you get as a freelancer at your hometown newspaper can lead to a full-time internship with a larger paper.

And make yourself available. Be willing to work nights and weekends – those are the times when breaking news happens and will get you the clips you need to make your portfolio stand out. It also shows employers that you’re dependable and flexible.

Also, be willing to work on more than one story – show that you’re versatile and can write both hard news, as well as features. Take on challenging assignments that show your initiative and willingness to learn and develop your writing and reporting skills.

Treat your internships as steppingstones to the job you really want when you graduate. Shape your experience so it prepares you for where you want to go. If you want to cover politics, ask to see if the paper’s political writer needs help on a story, or if you want to cover education, ask to cover school board meetings.

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