Interns Living Out Their Dreams

On the July 29 broadcast of The Today Show, anchors Al Roker and Savannah Guthrie introduced the program’s team of summer interns in honor of National Intern Day. While Roker and Guthrie were sitting at their news desk in Tokyo, where they were covering the Summer Olympics, the 15 interns appeared on Zoom from all around the United States.

At the top left of the Zoom grid, wearing a red BU T-shirt, was Alexandra Ross, the first—and one of the only interns—whom Guthrie introduced. “I really was at a loss for words,” Ross (’22) says. “That moment is something I’ll remember for my whole life.”

Ross is one of 10 students who received backing through the COM Fellows Fund to participate in media internships at companies including WBUR, Gray Television and NBC. The fund, available to COM juniors and seniors, was established by an anonymous donor and provides students with up to $10,000 each to pursue positions that might be unpaid or pay very small stipends. The college has also developed partnerships with leading media and communication organizations, which reserve internships for fellows.

The program debuted in fall 2020, funding three students who participated in internships at GBH, America’s Test Kitchen and Gray Television. However, Patrick Nelson, director of COM Career Services, says the program will move forward with a focus on funding summer internships. Next year, it will support a new crop of 10 students (see bottom of story for more information on applying).

Living the Dream

For Ross, the Today internship was a dream long in the making. Six years ago, she stood with her mother outside Today’s studio, on Rockefeller Plaza, holding a sign that read, “Natalie, can I do the news with you?” It worked. Ross was invited into the studio to read some of the day’s headlines alongside Today anchor Natalie Morales.

During the National Intern Day segment, the show displayed a still photo from when Ross was invited into the studio all those years ago. Over Zoom, Ross spoke with Roker and Guthrie about the full-circle experience. “I still have the poster. It looks exactly the same… I have it right here,” she told them before holding it up.

“I’ve wanted to be a journalist practically my whole life,” says Ross, who counts Guthrie as her ultimate role model. “My standard answer anytime I’m asked what I want to do or be when I grow up is simply her name. I think she’s just brilliant.”

During her internship, Ross researched celebrities and artists to help the show’s producers prepare segments and assisted in recording Zoom interviews between anchors and guests. She also worked the overnight shift during the Olympics, transcribing audio and logging footage. She even pitched some story ideas.

“I’m quite literally living out my dream,” says Ross, reflecting on the internship. “How many people can say that?”

A Breadth of Experience

COM Fellow Sari Cohen also got to experience firsthand the excitement of working behind the scenes on a popular news program she has long admired. Cohen (’22) interned with CNN’s Don Lemon Tonight, where she got to assist with many different aspects of the show’s production. She helped pitch and schedule guests, selected video and audio clips, assisted in writing some segments and created graphics for the show.

Cohen called the internship “a once in a lifetime opportunity… To me, there is no better way to improve as a journalist than to learn from the best and work on a daily live news broadcast.”

Two other COM Fellows, Johanna Lapuyade and Will Andronico, Jr., also gained valuable experience working in development and production internships.

Andronico (’22) interned with New York City-based VICE Media, where he worked remotely from Boston with the company’s television development team.

“I’m a big fan of their work, and I thought there was a lot of incredible stuff going on at the company,” Andronico says, citing both their television and web productions. “This internship showed me a huge breadth of what goes into the development of unscripted television series, from the creative development to production to analytics. It was like a crash course in TV development.”

Andronico was able to sit in on pitch meetings, observe how budgets and schedules for shows were developed and helped examine Nielsen ratings and other analytics to inform future show development. He says the experience gave him insight into what he might want to do when he graduates.

“My strengths lie in the production and the data and analytics side of things. This internship helped me realize I would be great at helping creative people build their project into something that’s really successful,” he says. “And the COM Fellows Fund has been an incredible help. It allows you to explore potential career paths and get the experience that’s needed, without working additional jobs to pay for it.”

I’m quite literally living out my dream. How many people can say that?

—Alexandra Ross (’22)

Lapuyade also says her internship helped her get important experience for her future career. Lapuyade (’22) interned with the television and podcast teams at Boston-based food media company America’s Test Kitchen, where she worked on Season 22 of the company’s eponymous cooking show, helping with script and recipe research, cleaning up podcast transcripts and reviewing episodes in post-production.

She was also given the opportunity to tailor her internship to her specific interests. When she told her supervisors that she hopes to pursue a career in writing for children’s media, they connected her with the producer of their podcast tailored to kids, Mystery Recipe, who invited Lapuyade to produce a segment for an episode in the upcoming season. Lapuyade saw the segment through from pitching ideas to writing the script.

“I’m so grateful that they gave me the opportunity to take on such a big project,” she says. “I can’t wait to see how it turns out.”