News Story

The Media Living Learning Center students visited New York City on a networking and experience trip over the Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend, Jan. 16-19. During the trip, they met with alumni and toured the offices of New York’s famous media sites.

By Rachel Goodman

We started out ascending to a high floor, excited and anxious to learn. The glass-lined windows in the office set off a professional vibe as alumna Sheara Braun brought us into a conference room.

Emily, a success story from MSNBC’s Page Program, was the first speaker. The Page Program is a post-undergraduate, year-long experience that offers transitions into entry-level jobs at NBC Universal.

We also all received a business card with the contact information of workers at the Campus 2 Career Internship program. This is similar to the Page Program, but provides undergraduates with media experience. Both Campus 2 Career and The Page Program provide young adults with interactive networking and real world media opportunities.

Chris Hayes, now a successful journalist who started at only $8,000 a year after college, was the next presenter. The 2001 Brown graduate provided us with a triumphant story where he overcame four years of freelancing to work at MSNBC.

Another former Page member and music school graduate, Shang Puri, spoke next. Wanting to be in a place where she could control the content she put out, she went through years of up and downs to finally end up at MSNBC. Her story was very relatable, as IU Media School students are worried about getting jobs right outside of college. She went from performing in Europe to working for her parents to ending up where she really wanted to be.

Then came along a surprise we all were not expecting. President of MSNBC Phil Griffin made an appearance to provide us with some wisdom. He went through history to explain that technology will keep evolving, and that we won’t know how it will explode when we graduate. He focused on the power of personality. Technology will keep evolving, but human nature is always what will be most important in his eyes.

Here are a couple of takeaways from the visit:

1. Be personal towards people. Be a smart and truthful storyteller.
2. Interns need to have good energy, diligence and competence. Paying attention to detail is a good skill to have.
3. There may be a long path and a lot of “nos” in order to get to where you want.
4. You have to practice writing in order to be a good writer.
5. No one cares what you think at age 22. Provide people with interesting and original pitches on stories they don’t already know about.
6. Start out living somewhere cheap, such as Chicago and not New York, when working towards being a journalist.
7. Persistence and connections are key.

Read more student reports from the Media LLC’s experiences in New York.