Interning with USA Today College: The Saga Continues

Richard at USA Today

By Dean’s Intern Richard Fields at USA Today

In case you’re wondering why I look so happy in this picture, I will explain that shortly.  But first I’d like to start from the beginning.  Last semester I interned with USA Today’s Video Production Team, helping produce a number of their daily shows and even attended a red carpet event. This semester I’ve returned as an intern in the College section of their website, which I must say has been an exciting experience as well.

Working with the College team has the energy of working with a small start up.  There are tons of ideas bouncing around between us everyday for new stories, programs, apps, videos, and the list goes on, which is a living dream for a creative-minded individual such as myself.  College students from around the nation, and around the world to include our study abroad correspondents, contribute their stories and ideas for content.  It also doesn’t hurt that I am able to pitch and write some stories as well.

With this abundance of ideas, it can at times get overwhelming, which I never thought I’d say is a good thing.  But it is.  This means we’re constantly thinking of new things and pushing the envelope, which ultimately creates progress.  There is a quote from Steve Jobs that my manager frequently recites that goes something like this, “Let’s not worry about the bad ideas, but how many good ideas have you said no to?”  He understands that we will not change the world by trying to implement every good idea we come across, but instead run ourselves ragged.  Therefore, we simply choose the best ideas, and go for them with 100% of our focus.

I was invited to join the College team in order to help bring more video content to their site, which was more challenging than I thought.  We had several good ideas for shows to start, and following our philosophy, we chose the two best ones to go for 100%.  These shows are College Now and Late Night Snack.  Despite the majority of my experience being behind the camera, I chose to host the latter because I saw just how much I could gain from that opportunity.  From things as simple as enunciation and  good body language to the complexities of delivering a message succinctly and efficiently, I see the practicing of these skills bringing out the best version of myself.  And in case you are wondering, that cheesing smile you see is a behind the scenes still from our first episode.

From producing, hosting, and editing, to promoting on our site and all forms of social media, it is easy to see how these shows alone keep my hands full.  If we mix in writing and reviewing articles and finding content for our site, I’m pretty sure you get the picture.  But what is most important is I wouldn’t trade it for anything.  Every job has its challenges and with this I get to face the ones that I love.  I ultimately get to feed my wide array of interests all under the same roof, and I have a great team of positive people to work with.  So in short, I love what I do.  And in case you want to see the latest episode of our show, you can see it by click here.