One of the cool things about this gig is the opportunity to work with a variety of young writers.
This week’s cover story was first pitched to me last semester by UA student Tammy Stephens when I visited one of her journalism classes, taught by Jay Rochlin, an assistant professor at the UA School of Journalism. (He’s also an occasional and far-too-infrequent Tucson Weekly contributor.)
Of course, Tammy isn’t the only young writer in our pages this week. We have three fine UA students currently doing writing internships here: Shain Bergan, Tyler Kurbat and Jazmine Woodberry. You can see their work each week in the City Week section, and in other parts of the newspaper.
UA student Josh Morgan is currently our photo/video intern—his amazing pictures accompany Tammy’s piece this week—and he’s also doing some mighty fine writing on video games and technology on The Range, our daily dispatch.
Finally, our intern from City High School, A. Greene, is back for her second semester—and no offense, but she’s probably smarter than you are.
Over the last couple of months, it’s been a blast to work with Tammy on this week’s piece; her excitement and glee for journalism is contagious. The same goes for our interns, who are usually quite excited about their first Tucson Weekly bylines.
I’m several thousand bylines into my career, and I must admit that the thrill of seeing my work in the newspaper doesn’t carry the luster it once had. But it never gets old to see a young journalist experience that joy.
This article appears in Feb 3-9, 2011.
I’m sure a lot of idiots are going to ask this, but let me be the first idiot: Is this THE Shain Bergan? The one who flippantly responded to a non-journalism incident earlier in his J-career but also won praise for his gutsy reporting? This guy: http://www.tucsonweekly.com/tucson/Profile… ?
I mean, as an outside observer, Shain has guts and is willing to stick it to The Man, but in the same breath I’m curious about this hiring decision. It’s not my paper to comment, and I’m not trying to cast aspersions or stir anything up. The name just finally clicked in my head as to where I heard it before and then I re-read the comments and Media Watch coverage. And I remember being a petulant intern back in the day, too (hat tip to Jimmy for teaching me to cool it). Maybe I’m the only one who remembers this stuff.