WORKING TO LEARN
Students spend summer learning on the job
Ryan Clancy (Contributed photo)
ECU graduate launches career with prestigious internship
The pomp and circumstance of graduation had barely ended when East Carolina graduate Ryan Clancy moved to St. Petersburg, Florida for an internship with the Tampa Bay Times.
The Leesburg, Virginia native received a Dow Jones News Fund copy editing internship at the Pulitzer-Prize winning newspaper, which is also home to PolitiFact, a fact-checking website that measures the accuracy of claims by elected officials and others in American politics.
“I am just ecstatic that Ryan was chosen for one of these internships,” said ECU Student Media Director John Harvey, who serves as adviser to The East Carolinian. “They are hard to get and the application process is rigorous.”
Before Clancy started, the former East Carolinian editor attended a weeklong boot camp with other interns at Penn State University, receiving extra training on copy editing, headline writing and other skills.
“I’ve already made a lot of progress, and I hope to get even better by the time I leave. Some of the other copy editors have been here 20 years, so I’m really trying to learn as much as I can from their experience,” he said.
Clancy edits stories for grammar, spelling and style and also checks names for misspellings. He ensures articles adhere to the Tampa Bay Times style, which is slightly different from the AP Style he has used.
“I also write headlines for all the articles I edit,” Clancy said. “One of the coolest parts of this internship is getting to see a headline I wrote in the paper the next day.”
Clancy said the skills he learned at the campus newspaper and in ECU’s School of Communication prepared him for the job. “Working for The East Carolinian helped me learn so much about every aspect of newspapers and journalism,” he said. “Just having that experience as a reporter and as editor-in-chief was incredibly beneficial.”
Harvey and Mary Tucker-McLaughlin, associate professor of communication, coordinated the Dow Jones News Fund application at ECU this year.
Some East Carolina University students are turning summer vacation into a vocation at internships across the United States and beyond.
From teaching to public health, from weaving to writing, students have been learning about their intended professions while gaining valuable on-the-job experience before returning to campus this fall.
“Related work experience that adds to a student’s academic preparation pays great dividends,” said Jim Kuras, associate director of ECU Career Services. “Many of our students will complete multiple internships prior to graduation, and the experience, contacts and recommendations that they develop will definitely help launch their career.”
Employers use internship and co-op programs as a tool to recruit and retain students as potential post-graduation employees, making offers to nearly 73 percent of their interns and co-op students. Of those, about 60 percent will become full-time employees, Kuras said.
For English education major Glenesha Berryman, her summer internship has helped solidify her plan to work with underserved students after graduation.
“The internship will inspire me to work hard in college so that I can spend my life serving students like the ones I’ve taught this summer,” Berryman said.
Glenesha Berryman (Contributed Photo)
The 19-year-old EC Scholar secured an eight-week teaching internship with Breakthrough Collaborative in Texas to help middle school students develop a plan to become the first in their family to attend college.
“I know that I have a passion for college access and working with high-achieving students that come from high-risk communities,” Berryman said.
Logging more than 50 hours a week, Berryman teaches three classes of English and language arts at Manor Middle School in Manor, Texas. Her classes are comprised of 25 sixth-graders with Brazilian, Mexican, Hawaiian, Sudanese, Vietnamese, African-American and Thai backgrounds.
“I knew I would learn about teaching, but I have learned so much more about how to create a positive work culture that makes for a successful organization,” Berryman said.
In some cases, summer internships have helped students identify the things they really enjoy – and the things they like less – about potential jobs.
Jaleel Kuteh, a public health studies major, landed a competitive internship with Project Imhotep, a partnership between Morehouse College and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, Kuteh’s hometown.
“I believe that this internship will benefit me in all ways as a public health professional,” Kuteh said. “This is one of the first major steps I have taken in my career.”
Jaleel Kuteh (Contributed Photo)
The 11-week internship is designed to develop skills in biostatistics, epidemiology and
occupational health and safety. The internship started with two weeks of rigorous public health courses at Morehouse and instruction at the CDC.
From there, Kuteh was paired with a mentor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Gillings School of Global Public Health where he helps research ways to disseminate key cancer findings between community members, researchers and stakeholders to reduce the incidence of breast cancer in eastern North Carolina.
Kuteh, 22, who wants to be an epidemiologist, said the most challenging aspect of the internship has been reading articles needed for the research and writing literature reviews.
While acknowledging research is significant in the public health field, Kuteh said he prefers doing hands-on work in the community. “I am more inclined to the practical side of public health,” Kuteh said. “I would like for the majority of my career to take place away from my desk.”
His interest in epidemiology peaked after the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, and the internship hasn’t changed his career choice. “This has been one of the most rewarding opportunities I have ever received,” he said.
Senior Emily Feege said working this summer at Valdese Weavers in western North Carolina has strengthened her decision to pursue a career in the textiles and design field.
She said she didn’t really know about textiles until she took a survey class in the School of Art and Design. “I was so interested in the introductory dying, weaving and silk painting processes that I knew I wanted to explore textiles further,” Feege said.
Emily Feege (Contributed Photo)
When she was looking for a field experience, she thought of her great uncle, who has worked at Valdese Weavers for many years. She contacted the company to find out about internship opportunities and applied.
“Right now, I am doing research and working with a designer from Valdese Weaver’s Circa 1801 brand to create a fabric from start to finish,” Feege said. “I hope to learn the entire process of how jacquard fabrics are designed and woven. There is so much work that goes into each fabric.”
Earlier this summer, she helped designers prepare and set up for ITMA Showtime, the largest fabric show for companies and buyers of decorative fabrics in the United States. The show was held in High Point, home to the largest furnishings industry trade show in the world.
A native of Severna Park, Maryland, Feege is set to graduate in December with a bachelor of fine art with a concentration in textile design.
“My courses at ECU have been a really strong platform for what I am learning at Valdese Weavers,” Feege said. “Most of my classes including weaving, dye, screen printing and textile design for industry all have taught me skills that I use very often here.”
Another student transferring skills from the classroom to the real world is Sahiti Marella, a junior majoring in public health studies with a minor in psychology.
Marella, who wants to attend medical school and conduct global health research, is interning at ECU’s Innovation and Design Lab, which opened earlier this year on Jarvis Street near downtown Greenville. The internship was the first at the site specifically designed for an Honors College student.
Marella wants to work with underserved communities to improve health outcomes – especially for children – and provide better access to health care, knowledge and resources.
With that goal in mind, Marella is developing an interactive website with a series of fun and informative lessons on public health education for third- through fifth-graders.
“Creating this idea and working out all of the potential kinks and hurdles that could come my way was a tedious yet rewarding experience,” she said
Sahiti Marella (Photo by Cliff Hollis)
“Around one-third of North Carolina’s children are either overweight or obese,” she said. “My hope is to integrate these modules into Pitt County Schools and see a positive trend towards better lifestyle choices and healthier children.”
With IDL Director Wayne Godwin’s help, Marella has been able to network with school officials to hopefully implement her idea before she graduates.
“The biggest lesson for me though has been one of the most fundamental ones: be persistent, be determined and have a healthy disregard for the impossible,” she said. “I hope to keep learning as I continue working on my project.”