Community Newspaper Interns: Lessons From a Lifetime in Journalism
Alexandria, VA – Zebra publisher Mary Wadland (aka Ms. Miracle Mary) introduced us to three summer interns at the June staff meeting. There are eight this year.
(Mary is a miracle not only because she survived a liver transplant but also because she has a super power. She keeps us happy by giving us a platform in The Zebra to showcase what we love doing.
When taking my first photography classes at the Alexandria campus of Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA), I was an unpaid photographer for both the National Zoo and the Gazette Packet. I say “unpaid” and mostly it’s true. I wasn’t paid for my time but I got class credits and gained experience, but it was meeting people at special times of their lives and recording a memory they treasured that was most valuable.
Today, phone cameras make getting and saving the photo fairly easy. Retrieving it later can be harder.
Actually, after a time I did get paid money at the newspaper – $5 per published print. I worked all day Saturday, every Saturday, processed film (in those days it was film) on Saturday nights and printed on Sundays. I had a darkroom built in my home so I could process and print late into the night. At NOVA the students were swept out at night, along with the floors.
I dropped a stack of captioned photographs on the desk of Editor Jim Coldsmith’s desk on my way to work on Monday mornings and then anxiously waited to see what would be published on Friday. Often it was only one print. Once when the staff photographer was on vacation, ten were published – $50 for a whole weekend’s work.
I photographed meetings and events. I photographed kids playing in parks and playing on the streets. I photographed the streets themselves. When I photographed people, whenever possible I collected and saved their contact info and mailed them a copy clipped from the paper. Sometimes I got future business from those follow-ups but also friendships. Some of the friendships have lasted more than 30 years.
I read recently in Alexandria Living Magazine that, after 34 years at NBC4, Alexandria’s Julie Carey is retiring. “Asked in that same conversation what she would tell young people weighing a career in journalism, her answer was characteristically plain: it helps to have healthy doses of curiosity, creativity, and persistence — three qualities her own work supplied in abundance, week after week, for 34 years.”
I’m pretty sure I was the eldest “elder” at that recent staff meeting and here’s my message for the interns, not only for the photographers but for the writers and storytellers: “Focus through your heart.”
My wish for you is that you appreciate the importance of working for a community newspaper. It is akin to a sacred trust. You are a witness to current history. You have the ability/responsibility to document the people and events you witness. Focus through your heart.
Talent, dedication, and generosity walk daily among us. Also sadness and pain. Open your eyes and your heart and record it. You – and we – will be richer for it.
Mosaic Artist/Photographer Nina Tisara is the founder of Living Legends of Alexandria.
