The pay is low. Job stability is not a guarantee. You’ll have to expect that a large segment of the population will harbor distrust of your work. These upfront conditions would drive off most young job candidates, but not aspiring young journalists.

Here we are at the advent of spring, and again this year, The Lakeville Journal and The Millerton News are receiving inquiries from high school and college students eager to work as summer interns alongside our reporters and editors. Last year both papers benefited from hosting interns who ranged from rising seniors in high school to rising seniors in college. We learned from them as they learned from us. It was harmonious and fruitful and fun for all of us, and we celebrated with pizza when the summer was over. Some of them applied to college, others to journalism graduate school to further their education.

The 2024 summer intern season is shaping up with even more interest among students. In the interview process we always ask why they want to work for a newspaper covering local, community events. One interested student attending Boston University, who is from Millbrook, said that he wanted to be witness to history. We were immediately impressed, recognizing the right stuff in this candidate.

Working on the staff of an independent community newspaper provides for direct connection with one’s immediate world. It is not a homogenized form of journalism, directed by absentee owners or fabricated via aggregator technologies. It is not an abstract exercise. And when you make a mistake — we’re all human — you know it.

The power of journalism to validate a community’s life in its countless facets becomes evident by the mere telling of the story.

Leila Hawken’s story last week about the work of the SharonConnect Task Force stands as an excellent showcase for independent community journalism. Hawken has covered the years-long project from the start, with its beginning survey, through planning and now almost completed execution. Her story stands as an ideal for community journalism, detailing the many roles played by volunteers, town officials and Comcast and construction crews to get the job done, including as well what residents of the new high-speed internet access have to say about their enhanced digital connection. Anyone wishing to be witness to the rollout of this vital community project, fueled by community activism, needs only to follow Leila Hawken’s reporting.

Some students seeking internships with us are pursuing journalism as a major, but not all of them. Often they say they began to think about journalism after taking a writing course — not a standard English course — and because they liked it so much, they began to consider journalism. At the high school level, studies have shown that exposure to journalism has these benefits: higher GPAs, higher scores on college entrance exams, and stronger writing and grammar skills in college.

A journalism education as a prerequisite for the job has been debated over the decades. But experience on the job, and learning firsthand from someone “doing it,” continues to be an invaluable learning experience for our career-conscious interns.

Among journalists as a whole, despite the low pay and turbulent times for job security and not to forget threats to press freedom, three out of four journalists say they would choose their career all over again. In a 2022 survey by the Pew Research Center of nearly 12,000 working, U.S.-based journalists, the conclusion was that despite the turmoil in the field over past decades, they continue to report satisfaction and fulfillment in their jobs. Reminds us of the old saw: Love what you do.

We’ll share more about our 2024 interns in coming weeks — in our words and their own.

Latest News

Club baseball at Fuessenich Park

Travel league baseball came to Torrington Thursday, June 26, when the Berkshire Bears Select Team played the Connecticut Moose 18U squad. The Moose won 6-4 in a back-and-forth game. Two players on the Bears play varsity ball at Housatonic Valley Regional High School: shortstop Anthony Foley and first baseman Wes Allyn. Foley went 1-for-3 at bat with an RBI in the game at Fuessenich Park.

 

  Anthony Foley, rising senior at Housatonic Valley Regional High School, went 1-for-3 at bat for the Bears June 26.Photo by Riley Klein 

 
Siglio Press: Uncommon books at the intersection of art and literature

Uncommon books at the intersection of art and literature.

Richard Kraft

Siglio Press is a small, independent publishing house based in Egremont, Massachusetts, known for producing “uncommon books at the intersection of art and literature.” Founded and run by editor and publisher Lisa Pearson, Siglio has, since 2008, designed books that challenge conventions of both form and content.

A visit to Pearson’s airy studio suggests uncommon work, to be sure. Each of four very large tables were covered with what looked to be thousands of miniature squares of inkjet-printed, kaleidoscopically colored pieces of paper. Another table was covered with dozens of book/illustration-size, abstracted images of deer, made up of colored dots. For the enchanted and the mystified, Pearson kindly explained that these pieces were to be collaged together as artworks by the artist Richard Kraft (a frequent contributor to the Siglio Press and Pearson’s husband). The works would be accompanied by writings by two poets, Elizabeth Zuba and Monica Torre, in an as-yet-to-be-named book, inspired by a found copy of a worn French children’s book from the 1930s called “Robin de Bois” (Robin Hood).

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Cycling season: A roundup of our region’s rentals and where to ride them

Cyclists head south on the rail trail from Copake Falls.

Alec Linden

After a shaky start, summer has well and truly descended upon the Litchfield, Berkshire and Taconic hills, and there is no better way to get out and enjoy long-awaited good weather than on two wheels. Below, find a brief guide for those who feel the pull of the rail trail, but have yet to purchase their own ten-speed. Temporary rides are available in the tri-corner region, and their purveyors are eager to get residents of all ages, abilities and inclinations out into the open road (or bike path).

For those lucky enough to already possess their own bike, perhaps the routes described will inspire a new way to spend a Sunday afternoon. For more, visit lakevillejournal.com/tag/bike-route to check out two ride-guides from local cyclists that will appeal to enthusiasts of many levels looking for a varied trip through the region’s stunning summer scenery.

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