Journosaurus Rex

June 14, 2011

Long time no see, reader!

To my faithful readers: I humbly apologize for my absence this past week and a half. My life has zoomed forward at a speed that I am not at all familiar with. Since my last post I have successfully completed my first IHS summer seminar, made amazing news friends, left my beloved Virginia, moved to Pennsylvania and started my internship.

My internship has already thrown me to the wolves, as my boss said, and I’ve already written two articles and interviewed politicians, and it’s only my second day! The pace is fast, and although I’m nervous, I know I’m learning a lot of valuable skills.

But let me back track and talk about the IHS seminar. I want to spend some time on that, because I want to encourage any person out there who may even have some Libertarian inclinations to consider going to one of these seminars. The particular seminar I went, Journalism & a Free Society, truly was eye-opening.

There were about 70 participants and a handful of speakers at the event. We heard from Libertarian legends like Radley Balko, and listened to people I’d never heard of before, like Mollie Hemingway and Lene Johnasen, both amazing writers. It was great to have conversations with these accomplished journalists and get their opinion on the current climate in the industry. Although I had long been moving towards digital media, these speakers reinforced my belief that I was making a good decision but also opened my eyes to the idea of working for a magazine.

Another aspect that was covered in regards to the current job market was to find yourself a beat. You can’t just be a jack of all trades, you have to have a specialty. For example, Radley Balko has made his name by carving out a niche covering police raids. He is known throughout the country for exposing government corruption and his hard work paid off, he is now a senior writer at the Huffington Post.

Mollie Hemingway is another great example. She didn’t start out as a journalist, but through working a beat she was able to land great jobs in the industry. She now works as a religion writer and has been published regularly in publications like the Wall Street Journal. Mollie specifically ignited the idea of religion writing in me.

I have always been a fan of religion even though it was just last year that I was baptized into my amazing Roman Catholic Church. Before, when I was just a freshman in college I took a Religion 100 course and I can safely say it was one of my favorite classes at George Mason University. The class was taught by Vicky Dreyer and we covered the top 19 religions in the world, which included obvious ones like Islam and Judaism, but also included Neo-Paganism and Kardashian Spiritism (think 19th/20th century séances–not a religion devoted to the Kardashian sisters).

So yes, I like religion. Maybe I should make it my career to write about it. I’m hoping that this internship at the PA Indy will give me experience churning out quality articles, and then, hopefully, whatever I’m doing in England will give me more experience with culture writing.

All in all it’s been a pretty amazing week. It was hard to leave the nest and say goodbye to my parents (it’s still hard) as well as saying goodbye to my old and new friends, but I know this is the best decision I could make for right now. I really hope that at the end of these two months in Harrisburg I will be a much better journalist, and hopefully person, too.

And as I said before, if you are into the Libertarian movement at all (even just a tiny little bit) get in touch with the Institute for Humane Studies ASAP. They are a great group and can really help you grow in your beliefs.

Filed by yasmintadjdeh at June 14th, 2011 under Uncategorized
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