the internship was nothing less than incredible––i was thrust right into the swing of things as soon as my first day started. that first week, i shadowed a segment that would become the largest part of my internship, “experts on camera”––one-on-one broadcast quality interviews that we arranged between scientists and reporters in order to facilitate conversation and increase availability. we decide on an overarching theme and three subtopics for that month’s round of “eoc,” as we called it, and then go searching for experts to contact. if they accept our invitation to participate, we schedule a 90 minute window, and the reporters simply sign up for a 15 minute slot. on the day of, we jump into a set of questions we come up with for a general video that will be edited and posted on the website for those who couldn’t attend. 

my first round of “eoc,” i edited one of the three videos. the second round, i edited all three videos, as well as helped brainstorm topics and assisted in finding experts. my third round though, i did everything, from deciding on a whole topic and subtopics to finding experts, pitching them to our team, contacting them, writing all promotional material and general video questions, interviewing them, and editing the videos together. 

the biggest challenge that i experienced was that many people didn’t respond, so we always had to be prepared––backups had to be ready to go at all times. for one segment, we went from zero reporters signed up to all four slots being filled in less than 12 hours. it was nerve-wracking, but it was the most rewarding process i’ve ever experienced. i watched myself go from a shadow to successfully leading a whole “eoc” round myself. i can go look at my segments about climate change––specifically species extinction, children’s health effects of wildfire smoke, and agricultural yields––and know that i am the reason they exist and can be reported on more effectively.

over the course of the summer, i wrote six articles. for each one, i conducted interviews, researched assigned topics, and analyzed research papers. once a draft was completed, i sent it to my editor, jeremy hance, who provided me with constructive feedback that always pushed me to be a better writer. jeremy’s edits went beyond what i typically receive as a reporter, as the edits were written to help me improve as a writer, in addition to helping my article improve.

to me, this internship experience meant a place to grow and refine my scientific reporting skills. being encouraged to explore a topic in ways i find newsworthy was quite liberating. the constructive feedback genuinely improved my writing ability, while the complex topics challenged my explanatory skills.

these complex topics were the challenge of my internship experience. when you become so enveloped in a topic, you forget the baseline knowledge readers often have. explaining the relationship between rising temperatures, climate change, and a high african wild dog mortality rate becomes more difficult the more you learn. for this specific story, my editor and i went back and forth, draft after draft, attempting to adequately explain how a study approached this subject. 

a personal highlight for me was having an article republished with nowthis. when i was in high school, nowthis was a publication i came across often due to their short explanatory, and often viral videos. seeing an article i wrote for mongabay published by them was somewhat of a full-circle moment for me. the fact that another publication wanted to republish my article also meant that someone else thought my writing was at the least intriguing!

mongabay really allowed me to develop as a reporter on my own. the topics challenged me, my editors pushed me to be better, and i am finishing my internship confident in my scientific reporting ability.

to read my reporting for mongabay, click here.