I’ve been home from New York for a few days now, and every time someone asks me how it was, I say, “I almost wish I hadn’t gone so I could do it again for the first time.” Cheesy, yes, but true. Between the guest visits, visiting the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, and the late night shows, this trip turned out to be even better than I’d hoped.
While in New York, my premonition that you have to have your life figured out while you’re in college was shattered. At the alumni mixer, I was speaking with three Miami grads who all work for NBC’s Today Show. I mentioned that I was nervous because I had already accepted a job working at a camp this summer instead of searching for an internship (the route that most of my friends with my major take). They all told me not to worry and that I had plenty of time. They were echoing a point that Lauren Doyle, Associate Director of PR at Hearst Publications, made earlier in the week – not everyone needs to graduate with a job. After college, she did a graduate internship. I looked into graduate internships after she talked about them, and I think they are a hidden gem. So many students, like me, haven’t ever considered graduating without a job, but these internships seem like a perfect opportunity to get your feet wet before diving in.
Another program that I heard a lot about is the NBC Page Program. This program is designed for people who have graduated from college (they don’t have to go right from one to the next though), and helps them get their foot in the door in the media industry. One person even said that a lot of employers will look to hire people who were a part of the NBC Page Program because the employers won’t have to go through the thousands of applications because being accepted to the page program means you’ve already done something to separate yourself from all the others.
This week also inspired me to get more involved. I recently joined The Miami Student, but I am now hoping to get involved with MUTV to explore the world of broadcast journalism a little more.
Another thing I took away from this week is the importance of connections – they can turn into sources for stories, help you further your career, tip you off on a potential story. So many of our guests said that the media world is so small, which was evident when we would mention one person we visited to another and we’d immediately hear “Oh, so-and-so is such a good guy. Did you know he went (insert place here) recently?”
As a journalism major, I often hear “Oh journalism, that’s a dying institution,” but this week really opened my eyes. I don’t think I’d say dying – just evolving. I would 10/10 recommend this class to anyone thinking about majoring in journalism, or even if you are just curious about it, do it. It was by far the highlight of my winter break.
Hannah Montgomery 