The First Day

There is never a dull moment in this big city and my first 48 hours in DC have been filled with all kinds of excitement. Just to provide some context, I’m planning to use this blog to chronicle my experience as the first multimedia intern with Hearst Newspapers. I was awarded a very generous scholarship to cover my tuition cost for the academic credit I’ll be receiving from the internship. As a part of that, I’ll be keeping a journal of reflections about my learning experiences and how that will influence my future career and all that jazz, but I’ll throw in plenty of fun stories and info about the exciting things I get to cover too.

I have to say, my first day was a bit more eventful than I had expected. It wasn’t in terms of workload, but the fact that one of the first things out of our editor, Chuck Lewis’, mouth was, "by the way Helen Thomas is retiring, but no one knows that yet." Her retirement was announced publicly a few hours later. That was a lot of take in first thing in the morning and was made even more real when I was assigned to a cubicle two down from hers. The phone rang off the hook literally all day long, but Ms. Thomas has not been back into the office yet and I’m not sure when I will see her.

My first day started as most new jobs do, with paperwork. But this time it was a bit different than ordinary paperwork. I was filling out my application for the Senate Press Gallery. After making sure my email account and voicemail were in working order, I ventured with two other interns over to the Capitol to get our press passes. I smiled for my picture and then with my new pass in hand rode the underground Senate train to the Senate cafeteria for lunch. I went back to the office to sift through all the media alert emails we get to see if there was anything interesting coming up, made a quick trip back to George Washington where I’m staying, and then Alan Blinder and I headed to the Woodrow Wilson Center to cover a public interview that Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve Chairman, was giving.

See the photo from my first assignment and read about his interview here:

http://blogs.chron.com/txpotomac/2010/06/bernanke_says_recovery_coming_1.html

The interview finished at 9pm and after starting my day at 9am I was exhausted, but I felt accomplished. And also important (probably a bit too much) with my new Capitol press pass around my neck. I think this internship is going to teach me a lot about being assertive and working with others to collaborate on coverage. The first week will be a learning experience and a little different because our bureau chief is out of town until Thursday, but I have a full calendar and I’m ready to cover Washington. I had concerns about getting lost (literally and figuratively in the big city), but I am carving out my role as the first multimedia intern in the bureau and learning the metro system so I am confident those fears will soon disappear.

I am winding down Wednesday as I write this and trying to get caught up on blogs. Expect posts on the events of Tuesday and Wednesday soon.