Above, Julietta Bisharyan, Summer 2022 intern at The Sacramento Bee.
Over the summer, I had the opportunity to intern at The Sacramento Bee as an enterprise reporter. This experience has taught me a lot about reporting and has undoubtedly reaffirmed my interest in wanting to become a journalist and the type of reporting I want to do. I learned how to pitch stories and see them come to full fruition. I also learned how to work alongside
photographers as well as take my own photos for my stories. I was even able to integrate the skills I learned from my journalism graduate program into my work, such as with data visualization.
The biggest lesson I learned from this experience was patience. Some of my stories had a slow start, as I had a hard time finding sources, and I feared that my ideas would never see the light of day. However, I learned how to be creative in finding sources and to not give up on my stories, especially ones that I knew were important to tell. Ultimately, I was able to publish all the stories I had pitched as well as the ones that my editor had assigned to me. My editor was an amazing mentor as she helped refine my stories and pushed me to go further in my reporting.
Above all, I am very grateful for the scholarship I received from the California Press Foundation. It granted me the opportunity to work as a real journalist for a summer and to tell important stories. I want to thank Cal Press for supporting young journalists like myself and for preparing us for the field of journalism. It was truly an honor.
Julietta Bisharyan received an internship grant from the California Press Foundation. If your news operation hosts interns, please consider assisting a prospective intern in applying for a Cal Press grant in 2023.
Cal Press is now accepting applications for our 2023 Internship Grants Program. The application deadline is Nov. 24, 2022. More details can be found here.