Living on Earth: An insider View on Exciting Internship

By: Frankie Pelletier

As a journalism student who isn’t entirely interested in working as a beat reporter or news anchor, I have been searching far and wide for the right internship for me to gain relevant experience in my field. 

I love writing and researching, but I want to work in a field where I feel connected to what I am making. I have been drawn to work that is based around big interests I have, like rock music and environmentalism.

Last semester, during my quarterly internship application spree, I chased down the opportunity to intern for Living on Earth, an environmental news program distributed by PRX across about 250 public radio stations, and also published as a podcast. 

I have now officially been their newest editorial intern for the spring and summer for the past three weeks. Jumping into their world, I have been met with kindness, great learning opportunities and understanding of a student’s hectic schedule. 

This isn’t an internship where I’m fetching coffee or doing the most menial tasks known to man. First of all, it’s entirely remote, so I can’t get anyone coffee even if they asked! But more importantly, this is a team that really wants to benefit from a fresh pair of eyes and help me learn the real ins and outs of how their broadcast works. 

I get to schedule, write questions for and sit in on interviews, edit transcripts and audio really I get to learn more about every single part of the operation. 

The first story I’m co-producing with my mentor is, luckily, a pretty happy one, in which we interviewed a journalist from Inside Climate News who wrote an article about the American Oystercatcher Recovery Program, which has had great success in the past 15 years. Through the journalist, we were also able to get in contact with a shorebird scientist from Manomet Conservation Sciences who works as the coordinator for the campaign and was happy to tell us more about the work and care that has gone into the campaign. 

Just getting started, I am having so much fun working with a dedicated team who cares so much about what they do. They want to help me learn and grow into my place in the industry, which is all you can really hope for from an internship!