Michael Kennedy is a senior at Guilderland High School.
For over the past month, I have been working as an intern here at The Daily Gazette from Guilderland High School. The time spent here has been one of the most rewarding experiences for me.
Before I came to work for the Gazette, writing for my school newspaper was the only experience as a reporter I had. In order to make sure that a job in journalism was what I truly wanted, I had to get real world experience. I chose The Daily Gazette for this reason. The Gazette appealed to me because I felt it could give me an experience that cannot be found in the classroom. I could not have been happier with the choice I made.
The first day of my internship certainly made an impression on me. I had been assigned to tag along with a reporter who followed stories as they happened out in the field.
It seemed like it was going to be a slow day, but then we overheard over the police scanner that a man involved in a local murder had been spotted and was now being pursued by police officers. We hopped into a car and dashed over to the scene, where the suspect’s car had been abandoned and the entire neighborhood was swarming with officers in search for this man. Never before had I seen so many cops in one area! They even called in a helicopter for air support to try to help catch the man. It seemed luck was not on the police department’s side that day, however, as the suspect was not caught.
For us, there was another story to be pursued.
We proceeded to head over to Central Park in Schenectady for the Ceremony of Remembrance of Homicide Victims, held during National Crime Victims Week. It was bittersweet to see all the families and friends hurt by deaths of their loved ones, yet who still remained positive and had an optimistic view on life.
After the ceremony, I met with the families of the victims and Commissioner of Public Safety Wayne E. Bennett who attended the ceremony and was being interviewed by the reporter I was with. It was a lot to take in for one day.
In the following weeks though I learned that not every day can be as exciting like following an exciting cop chase, or talking to the public safety commissioner in person. I learned that being a journalist meant a lot of hard work on the computer, on the phone and in composing well-written articles in short amounts of time to make a deadline. But I also learned throughout my time here that this grueling work is well worth it for the satisfaction and reward that occurs after you have reached your end goal.
The people working with me made this internship that much better. They knew I was new to journalism and did not have the same experience as the people around me did. Yet they were still extremely helpful, explaining how I should structure an article, or what types of questions to ask when conducting an interview.
Not only did I get the experience I was seeking, but they also gave me knowledge about journalism that I will be using in my future. I know now that I wish to become a reporter and this internship has solidified my choice to study journalism when I attend college next fall.
