A virtual Griz watercooler for Summer 2010

Phew. You got your internship. You're learning the ropes and getting your feet wet committing, I hope, daily acts of journalism. If everything around you seems new, let this site be a place to touch base with a community of old friends, or at least people you've seen around Don Anderson Hall.

As summer goes by I will post updates about what you and your classmates are doing out there on the road -- so please let me know via email -- nadia.white@umontana.edu -- when you have a particularly mind-blowing experience on the job: a front page story or photo, a first multi-media piece posted, you meet a long-time hero or witness history in the making. Please put Internship in the subject line, to make it my priority, and be sure to include links to your work and small .jpgs of your photos.

I will also post reminders about your sole responsibility to the school this summer: About midway through your internship, please submit your midterm evaluation. This is by you, and is an assessment of how your internship is going halfway through. You can find that form and any others you need to get credit for this class by way of a link an the lefthand sidebar or at http://www.jour.umt.edu/current-students/internships. Print it out, fill it in, and fax it to my attention at: 406-243-4650.

As your internship approaches its conclusion, please have your supervisor complete the supervisor’s evaluation. It is also available at the above URL. Please note that you and your supervisor must sign that completed form.

Remember to bring at least three samples of your work. These go into your file and become part of your graduation portfolio. You must have the three forms (Learning Agreement, Mid-Term Evaluation and Supervisors evaluation, plus work samples) to get credit for your internship.

We'll have a couple of photo contests along the way, too, to provide windows into each other’s world. These, of course, aren’t mandatory, but will help keep us all together as summer flies by. Sometime this summer (before the bitter end):

• Send me a picture of yourself that captures you doing your job.
• And send me a news photo that you took that has a story behind it.
• If you have a blog and will be writing about your work experience this summer, please consider sharing that with everyone. Send me the URL and I’ll post it on the blog.
• Every Friday I will post an open thread post. If you are struggling with some aspect of your internship and would like to throw it out to your classmates to help with — story ideas; lousy boss; unfriendly news room; too friendly newsroom, you can post it as a comment to the Open Thread post. Others can then answer you through  their own comments.
  

I will be traveling all of June and July. If you need me, email me at nadia.white@umontana.edu. You can follow my blog at http://travelswithjosie.com, if you’d like.

Have a great summer!

-- Nadia

Thanks to Mango Media for the graphic.