• JOSE R. LOPEZ/NYTI
• The New York Times Company editors and 23 journalism students from around the country have invaded the UA School of Journalism for The New York Times Student Journalism Institute. For 10 days, the students cover stories from around the city.

This week comes a blog entry from Amanda Portillo. Portillo is a former intern for the Tucson Weekly. She has spent the majority of her days since Jan. 2 at the UA School of Journalism's modified Pulliam reporting lab as a Web producer for The New York Times Student Journalism Institute.

Along with Jeannine Relly, an associate professor at the School of Journalism, I am also on the faculty of The New York Times Institute. The following is a short blog from Amanda. Check out the Web site—The New York Times—Student Journalism Institute

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The week I finished my internship at the Tucson Weekly, I started a new program with The New York Times Student Journalism Institute.

The institute is a 10-day program, led by staff from The New York Times Company newspapers, including The New York Times, The Boston Globe and The Lakeland Ledger. In total, 23 journalism students—undergraduate and graduate—from across the country were selected to participate.

Since Monday, we have been working on various print and multimedia stories to post on our Web site, www.nytimes-institute.com, and by early next week, we’ll have a “dead-tree” version to show off.

Some stories include the smuggling of Chinese across the U.S.-Mexico border, updates on the City Council, and the death of a midtown boy, as well as photo slideshows and video biographies of the students. The site is updated numerous times throughout the day. Right now, there are more great stories in the works. Check out the blog on the site, First Draft, it provides a behind the scenes on some of the stories and offers previews for stories to come!

So far, I’ve kind of steered away from my City Week days. I’ve been working on daily news and Web producing. I even got some help from my friends at the Weekly a couple of times; thanks, Mari and Jim!

Check us out!

Amanda