Interning at Durango Herald

Iulia visited the Durango Herald headquarters in Denver, CO

By Dean’s Intern Iulia Gheorghiu at the Durango Herald

This opportunity has newly been integrated into the Dean’s Internship offers and I was very excited and honored to be accepted to the program. What is the Durango Herald?

It is a newspaper in Southwest Colorado, family-owned, and part of a bigger connection of newspapers in neighboring counties. I worked for the Durango Herald as a DC correspondent, localizing stories and developments in Congress for readers in La Plata County.

This meant following the House Rep. Scott Tipton and Sens. Mark Udall and Michael Bennet. Coming in during an election, this gave me the opportunity to report on the very heated Senate race between Udall and Rep. Cory Gardner. It was challenging to find stories when Senate was out of session but I had a lot of support from the Durango Herald editor and the Denver correspondent. Overall, Durango Herald’s staff was very supportive.

This opportunity is amazing because you are encouraged to write as much as you can for the paper. If you are a beginning journalist and you want the opportunity to develop your skills and become more assertive following up on leads, consider applying for this position!

A perk of this job involves being flown out to Durango, Colorado to see who you will be writing for and meeting the staff of the Herald. I was there for two breathtaking days – Durango is beautiful, nestled in the mountains. It is definitely a change of pace from walking through DC, where the tallest landmark is the Washington Monument.

I will always treasure this semester for the work that I got to do. This is the first time that I had press credentials, to be a Capitol reporter. I have to hand them back in today, but I have a feeling I will be returning to apply for those credentials at some point.