Bringing the Nation’s Capital to Southwest Colorado
By Dean’s Intern Michael Cipriano at The Durango Herald
Anybody ever hear of The Durango Herald?
I know I never did until I started looking at the SOC Dean’s Internship program. The Herald is a newspaper local to the city of Durango in southwest Colorado.
But I was intrigued by the idea that I would ne the paper’s Washington, D.C. correspondent. I have dreamed of entering the field of political journalism, and I had experience covering politics during the summer of 2014, when I interned for RealClearPolitics.
The experience so far has been everything I could have hoped for. It started with the paper flying me to Colorado to explore the city of Durango. Along with seeing the city’s natural beauty, I also became familiar with the federal issues that are important to Coloradans.
I have been since been extensively covering Colorado’s federal legislature, including Sen. Michael Bennet, the newly elected Sen. Cory Gardner and District 3 Rep. Scott Tipton.
One of my first major assignments was to cover President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech. It was an amazing experience. After the speech concluded, I raced to Statuary Hall to interview Rep. Tipton before filing a story just before the nighttime deadline.
I have also covered topics such as methane emissions, hemp legislation, wildfire funding and ISIS.
Another big story I have been focusing on is immigration. It has been an ongoing issue throughout the semester, and has become especially prevalent in recent days after a federal judge blocked the president’s executive order from November.
While the paper does assign me stories it wants covered, I have the ability to be a self-starter and propose my own stories. Some of my work gets done from home, but I have also made several trips to Capitol Hill. This Wednesday, I will be meeting first-hand with Rep. Tipton in his office shortly before he introduces the Native American Indian Education Act.
It has only been six weeks, and I have already written about more subjects than I expected to when I accepted the internship. I am living my dream before I have even graduated college, and I am very forward to what the next nine weeks have in store for me.