Summer interns show education is not failing

While many recent headlines scream “Our educational system is failing,” two interns at The Gazette proved to me this summer education itself is not, even if the system around it is crumbling.


Those two interns, Rose Schneider and Thomasina Johnson, are both products of local schools. Schneider is a 2008 graduate of Pacelli High School, and she is majoring in international journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. Johnson is a 2008 graduate of Stevens Point Area Senior High School, and she is majoring in journalism and French at Miami University of Ohio.

I’ve been in this business for 13 years, and over those years I’ve worked with a lot of interns. Some have been decent, while others have been less so. None have excelled like these women.

I knew right away I had something special with them, before they had even written, proofed or edited one word for us. It was clear while interviewing them for the internships they were sharp, articulate students who were on a mission to learn.

Schneider wanted the internship for course credit, but more so for the experience of working with a community paper.

Johnson wasn’t taking it for course credit; she wanted to build her portfolio, and knew the best way to do it was to write for her hometown newspaper.

I kept them in The Gazette’s old location on Church Street the first week, so the budding journalists could get accustomed to the paper’s way of operation, but I decided to set them free the following week, giving them story assignments with tight deadlines. Both turned in stories better than those of any previous interns I’ve ever worked with, including a man who is now the managing editor at a central Wisconsin daily newspaper.

All summer, each girl wrote two to three stories weekly, ranging from upcoming event stories to human interest, and sometimes animal, stories. When I could, I walked them through the editing process, showing them what they did right and where they made mistakes. The right far outweighed the wrong, and the wrong was usually just stylistic mistakes that didn’t follow Associated Press format.

Their summer internships are now over, as both women need to head back to college. In reviewing their internships, I’ve been trying to figure out why they’ve excelled so well.

I’m sure part of the reason was competition. Although neither intern has ever said or done anything to indicate she was competing with the other one, it’s probably a given each one secretly didn’t want to be outdone by the other. That’s a natural, and healthy, instinct in the workplace, and it definitely worked to The Gazette’s advantage.

Part of the reason was probably their drives to make themselves marketable once they are ready to enter the workforce. The economy is tough, which allows employers to pick and choose only the best candidates when they hire people.

An internship such as this one will help them stand out, especially when they can show a future employer a whole summer’s worth of articles they published in an actual newspaper, and not just a college one. My glowing references for both of them should also help set them above the competition.

But I believe a large chunk of the reason was the excellent education they received both in Stevens Point and their universities. Their teachers and professors have provided them with a quality education that has instilled them with a desire to learn, an ability to listen and a need to excel.

As the system around those teachers and professors has fallen apart in recent years, those girls still received the instruction that has made them what they are today. Their teachers may have not have had the resources they’ve needed, but they still managed to make sure their students received the priceless education they’ve always been expected to give.

While I’m sad The Gazette will no longer benefit from the everyday presence of these two invaluable interns, I was happy to learn both women want to continue their relationship with the paper. Schneider wants to write articles for us when she can, and she said she also wants to come back next summer. Johnson said she would like to write for The Gazette over her winter break.

Truly, though, I’m just proud knowing The Gazette played a role in the education of two people who will go on to do great things in the journalism field.