Name: Danette

Year: Junior

Major: Journalism

Minor: African American Studies

CFS Program: Field Studies in the Humanities

This winter quarter, I have a position as an editorial intern at In These Times magazine. The publication is an independent, non-profit magazine with a progressive political focus that centers primarily on labor rights. The office culture is super casual, as I instantly realized on the first day when I walked in sporting a blazer and dress only to find my supervisor wearing a hoodie and sneakers. On that day, I was able to participate in the Headlines Meeting, a gathering of everyone around the table in the office’s main space. The area is littered with comfy mismatched sofas and armchairs. The editors and staff members demonstrated from the beginning how they not only wanted interns to contribute as much as possible to the team, but they expected us to do so freely. The main editor summarized the upcoming issue’s pieces one at a time, and then voices around the table offered up their ideas. The scene was collective brainstorming at its finest. No idea was shot down or belittled. It was clear that everyone, including interns, felt comfortable shouting the first punny headline that popped into their head. Often, one person’s half-baked suggestion would inspire someone across the table who would then complete the recipe. To make the whole situation even more engaging with a hint of friendly competition, Jessica, the editor, would keep a log of points to keep track of who had the most winning headlines. Many received halves and quarters of points depending on how many people around the table contributed to the final product. The winner gets bragging rights for that issue. This immediate exposure to the nature of the office was so reassuring. As my first internship experience, I was worried that I would be thrown into a highly-professional, conventional office space and would not know how to navigate the rules and hierarchal structures that i associated with office environments. It was refreshing to see how there is no algorithm to workspaces. Certain companies operate in a way that best fits their mission and provides the best space for the team to produce work that can achieve said mission. As a journalism student in Medill, I was especially wary of starting this internship because of the competitiveness that is so closely tied to the field and to the school.
Participating in CFS and working at In These Times could not have correlated more perfectly with my course schedule. I am also taking a magazine feature-writing and magazine editing class this quarter. It’s a very unique academic experience to learn something in a classroom on Monday and then to apply it to an article that is going to be published in a print magazine on Wednesday. This type of dual-learning has been so effective! It is unfortunate that many students at Northwestern, and at many schools in the country in general, let these types of opportunities which can be obtained through programs like CFS slip away.