I am over half way done with my internship and since I have started here at the newspaper I have learned many things and had many experiences. A couple of things that I have learned are how to edit photos, lay out pages, write articles, and take photos.

In the fall I went to the high school play “An Act of Piracy” to take pictures. I also took photos of the Veterans Day service at the high school. Recently I went to Prom for Pennies and took photos of the event. I found out that I really like taking photos. Next year I plan to take a photography class at school, so that I can improve this skill even more. 

I have also laid out the Views page a couple of times and some of the photo pages. These are good skills for me to learn especially if I decide to be a journalist. I think it might be one of the more difficult things I have had to learn how to do since I started here. There is a lot to it and a lot to remember, but every time I lay out a page I get a little faster at it. I know in the long run this will be a good skill to have. 

Learning how to edit photos was pretty easy, which is a good thing because it feels like I have edited a lot of photos. Sometimes it’s fun when they need a bit more done or just to look at the photos. Other times it’s a little tedious. But that’s alright. 

Overall my favorite thing that I have done since starting here is writing articles. If someone had told me a year ago that I would have several articles in the paper and a column I probably would have said, “yeah right.” Some of the articles that I have written are about Monroe High School students going on a foreign exchange trip to Costa Rica, Monroe High School Junior optimist club and what all they do, and an article about a local girl who participated in the Ms. Teen Petite pageant. Some things that I still have to learn how to do are being more outgoing and willing to interview people. Writing these articles has taught me that I could be a journalist or an author after college or more training and practice. 

— Marina Schubert Monroe High School student and Student Occupation & Readiness (SOAR) intern at the Monroe Times.