Interning the Summer Away

A Look at Three King’s Students’ Internships

When asked, “How was your summer?” Derek Reed (PPE ‘12), Tessa Carter (PPE ‘13), and Jerron Herman (MCA ‘13) have plenty to say. Each held a competitive internship at well-known institutions.

Oxford University Press accepted Carter, an avid reader and aspiring writer, as an editorial intern. King’s professor Joseph Loconte told Carter about the position. Though she applied last minute, Carter was placed into the Literature and Classics department at Oxford, which she says was “pretty much a dream come true.”

Part of that dream even included previewing manuscripts before the New York Times.  Carter also helped prepare manuscripts for publication, compiled research reports, wrote rejection letters, and attended editorial board meetings.

“Being at Oxford has given me valuable experience,” she said. “It gave me a taste of life in the publishing world and a glance at the exchange of ideas and the growth of culture on a micro and macro level.” Carter plans to use her experience to aid in what she calls “the other side of the publishing contract—the writer.”

Reed is another aspiring writer. This summer, he took on an internship at College Music Journal (CMJ), an essential resource for discovering college radio music and other non-commercial music. (Hipsters, take note.) Like Carter, Reed obtained his internship through a King’s connection—2011 King’s graduate, Holly Hall.

At CMJ, Reed worked three days a week, writing posts for the CMJ website, updating their Twitter, and working on long form projects such as stories on album releases. Additionally, he wrote freelance pieces for ESPN online.

Reed urges King’s students who are looking for editorial or journalism internships to “take writing classes seriously …  take other classes seriously too. Even if you don’t like your classes, they do develop your research skills.”

Reed also advises students to discover their interests—like music—and write about them.

Herman’s love for theater led him to intern at Rosie’s Theater Kids, an arts education organization, which, according to its website, is “dedicated to enriching the lives of children through the arts.”

Herman was the primary intern for a show entitled “Like Reaching for the Moon,” a biographical musical about a student-initiated strike in rural Virginia. He assisted in the production by keeping the student actors in line and helping them learn their lines. One endearing child called him “uncle,” Herman said.

Herman’s advice to his peers is to “start early and have a pointed goal.” He has interned in the arts world since his second semester of college. According to Herman, his internships required “inner confidence and tenacity.”

And they have given him confidence as well.

“I’m no longer truly fearful of supporting myself in the arts,” Herman said. “There are unknown crevices the untrained eye has never seen, but in his infinite wisdom God showed me those hidden places and put me in positions to inspire and motivate the industry.”