2018 Class of Snowden Interns IMPRESSIONS, LESSONS, AND REFLECTIONS I 071018 Snowden Program.indd 1 9/6/18 3:52 PM 071018 Snowden Program.indd 2 9/6/18 3:52 PM CHARLES SNOWDEN PROGRAM FOR EXCELLENCE IN JOURNALISM The University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication works closely with media organizations throughout Oregon. Each media partner invests in its Snowden intern by creating a supportive learning environment in its newsroom and paying about half of the intern’s stipend. The Charles Snowden Program for Excellence in Journalism endowment covers all remaining costs. During the 10-week program, Snowden interns learn what it takes to work in a professional setting. Whether they’re covering forest fires or City Hall, taking photos, shooting video, or recording audio, students produce exceptional work that is often featured on front pages, websites, and radio broadcasts and picked up by the Associated Press. In 1998, the family of Charles and Julie Snowden initiated the program in Charles’s memory. Charles had served as an editor at The Oregonian and the Oregon Journal. The program is open to student journalists at all Oregon colleges and universities. Since its inception, 270 students from 15 Oregon colleges have been awarded internships at 27 news organizations around the state. More than 80 percent of Snowden interns gain full-time employment in news media after completing their university degrees. 1 071018 Snowden Program.indd 1 9/6/18 3:52 PM MEET THE 2018 Snowden DANA ALSTON DESIREE BERGSTROM CAROLINE CABRAL University of Oregon University of Oregon Southern Oregon University Interns The Eugene Register-Guard Capital Press The Klamath Falls Herald & News ALEC COWAN MIRANDA DAVIDUK MAX EGENER University of Oregon University of Oregon University of Oregon KLCC 89.7 FM Oregon Public Broadcasting The Malheur Enterprise 2 071018 Snowden Program.indd 2 9/6/18 3:52 PM CONNOR KWIECIEN ANNA LIEBERMAN BEN LONERGAN MEGAN MORSE BRITTANY NORTON University of Oregon University of Oregon University of Oregon University of Oregon University of Oregon Oregon Public Broadcasting McMinnville News-Register The Eugene Register-Guard 1859 Magazine/Statehood Media East Oregonian BECCA ROBBINS HANNAH SIEVERT ERIC SCHUCHT MORGAN THEOPHIL MAGGIE VANONI University of Oregon University of Portland University of Oregon University of Oregon University of Oregon Baker City Herald The Daily Astorian The Roseburg News-Review The Medford Mail Tribune The Eugene Register-Guard 3 071018 Snowden Program.indd 3 9/6/18 3:53 PM DANA ALSTON is a graduate of the University of Oregon. He was an associate arts and culture editor at the student-run newspaper, the Daily Emerald. He has also worked as a freelance writer and intern at Willamette Week. Dana grew up in the Bay Area and is an avid Golden State Warriors fan. “There are stories everywhere. It’s good to on schedule. In every job, but especially Dana Alston remind yourself of that, especially when you’re in this industry, falling behind is the worst UNIVERSITY OF OREGON, CLASS OF ’18 about to work for a local paper. During my thing you can do. Keeping a tight schedule internship I was handed assignments that and maintaining awareness of deadlines is a MAJOR seemed boring or impossible to write about valuable skill. I’ve also learned the importance Media Studies, Cinema Studies on the surface. But through writing them, I of making mistakes, and the value in learning HOMETOWN discovered that stories can exist practically from those mistakes. Every intern is going to San Jose, California anywhere. A good journalist, and more mess up, but the best interns acknowledge importantly a local journalist, never takes a their mistakes and internalize the lessons INTERN ORGANIZATION story for granted. learned from them. More specifically, my The Eugene Register-Guard internship helped me sharpen my note-taking The most important thing I learned during and interviewing skills.” POSITION my internship was the importance of staying Features Intern 4 071018 Snowden Program.indd 4 9/6/18 3:53 PM DESIREE BERGSTROM is studying journalism at the University of Oregon. In the past she wrote for the Daily Emerald and had a piece about the 2017 solar eclipse published in Sageland Magazine. She also wrote for the student-run FLUX magazine. Desiree is a self-proclaimed “farm kid” who usually spends her summers moving irrigation pipe and driving tractors on her family’s 180 acres. She loves reading books about U.S. history and watching history documentaries. She is also an avid binge- watcher of early 2000s shows like The West Wing and JAG, and she listens to a lot of country music. “I am grateful for the opportunity to go Sometimes you just really enjoy a source and through the Snowden program, specifically at having conversations with them, and that is Desiree Bergstrom the Capital Press, because the publication will what happened with this story. I will also say UNIVERSITY OF OREGON, CLASS OF ’19 impact my career. As I go forward, I hope to that it was a pretty cool experience for me to continue in agriculture as well as journalism, see a story I had written on the front page of MAJOR something I knew coming into the internship. the paper. I grew up reading the Capital Press Journalism and I really respect the publication, as does Out of my published stories so far, my favorite HOMETOWN my family. For them to see my story on the story was my centerpiece on agritourism. I Culver, Oregon front page was cool for me. My editor was really enjoyed the sources I spoke with and the happy with how the story turned out and I was INTERN ORGANIZATION way the story came together. I got to go out able to relay the story the farmer told me and Capital Press to an agritourism operation that I remember keep the depth of the story.” going to as a child and talked with the owner. POSITION Reporting Intern 5 071018 Snowden Program.indd 5 9/6/18 3:53 PM CAROLINE CABRAL will be the editor-in-chief for Southern Oregon University’s student-run newspaper, The Siskiyou. She has also worked at Walnut Creek Magazine and The Medford Mail Tribune. Caroline reads both novels and the news, loves the sun, and enjoys cooking dinner with her roommates. “Throughout my time as an intern reporter, I people in the town and across the state. Caroline Cabral was challenged and inspired every single day. Getting to hear different perspectives and SOUTHERN OREGON UNIVERSITY, CLASS OF ’19 There are so many pieces I wrote that are a write about a movement that began from part of me now, but the most challenging a silly-worded insult was so much fun. The MAJOR (and the most fun) thing I have written was fact that people had fun reading about Communications and English a piece on the Spandex Mafia. What started the Spandex Mafia didn’t hurt either. This as an attempt at name calling by a city HOMETOWN internship has given me confidence in myself Concord, California councilman spurred a movement of bicyclists. and in my work. It has pushed me out of my I got to talk to people on both sides of a really comfort zone and allowed me to go after INTERN ORGANIZATION heated argument that centered around a new The Klamath Falls Herald & News stories I might have been otherwise afraid bike lane. I didn’t know if anyone would be to. It has made me a better writer, researcher, POSITION interested in the story other than me, but and person.” Reporting Intern it turned out that the story resonated with 6 071018 Snowden Program.indd 6 9/6/18 3:53 PM ALEC COWAN graduated from the University of Oregon. He was the podcast editor for the Daily Emerald and a radio fellow with the UNESCO Crossings Institute for Conflict-Sensitive Reporting and Intercultural Dialogue. He produced a podcast series for the UO Lundquist School of Business called “1O1,” which focuses on basic principles from college business school classrooms. He was also an intern and archivist for the UO English Department’s English History Project. His work has also appeared in Ethos magazine. Alec was a selected participant for the 2018 World Press Freedom Day Youth Newsroom. In his spare time Alec enjoys watching “Philosophy of…” YouTube videos and buying books he doesn’t read. “NPR has a prestigious name, whether that’s Roseburg. I constantly field calls from listeners in D.C. or at an affiliate station like KLCC. It looking for information or wanting to share Alec Cowan has always been a dream of mine to be able their gripes and praises, and this community UNIVERSITY OF OREGON, CLASS OF ’18 to wear that moniker, and I feel immense interaction has been a rather poignant aspect pride for being in my workplace. Community to the internship. It has allowed me to travel MAJOR journalism has taught me that there are to places I would have never gone and think of English always new angles to explore. National people I might have never run into. Listeners HOMETOWN issues affect Oregonians just as much as from across the state look to KLCC as a steady, Grand Junction, Colorado they affect those in D.C., and finding those reliable source of journalism, and my work affected by changes in union dues or the not only boosts my rapport but also allows INTERN ORGANIZATION travel ban has been a testament to local other editors to continue important projects KLCC 89.7 FM journalists’ responsibility to stay vigilant and uninterrupted.