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By
Anna Newkirk [former]
- August 6, 2021
Intern Highlights
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My time at D.C. Witness was so valuable and I am very grateful for the opportunity to be
a part of the team. I can’t express my gratitude enough for the chance to grow my journalistic
skills, be able to learn how to incorporate data and legal terms into my articles in an accurate
way, acquire teamwork skills in a professional environment, and also receive a quality
mentorship.
To start with my journalism skills, I came into my program at DC having spent over a
year away from journalism classes and I was very apprehensive about getting back into writing.
However, the opportunity to write articles on a weekly basis both by myself and with other
writers, was both inspiring and allowed me to receive necessary constructive feedback to get
back into a place where I was more comfortable with my writing again. Additionally, I got to
accumulate quite a bit of material for my portfolio and that was so valuable in terms of allowing
me to get hired in the future.
Not only did I get experience writing, but I was able to have an in-depth understanding of
writing within data and the court system. I had never written anything on trials and it was
extremely useful to be able to understand those terms and apply them to my pieces. Also, while
my math skills were reasonable prior to this internship, I was able to develop how I was able to
interpret data and I’m very happy that I have been able to do something like this prior to
professional world experience.
Being a part of the data team was also very beneficial. I really enjoyed the challenge of
collaborating and working with complex and incomplete data with the violence interrupters.
Getting to participate on the violence interrupter project and write other articles was truly the
best of both worlds and I loved getting to do two different things on a weekly basis.
Finally, I can’t thank D.C. Witness enough for the mentorship and guidance I received.
Getting to work with Trina and Amos was so special, because I felt very invested in and I felt
that what I was doing was contributing to the internship. It’s a unique aspect of D.C. Witness that
interns are actually valuable to the team and that I received legitimate news experience. Thank
you so much for everything again!