Niagara Frontier Publications

Summer/Fall 2017

I am Malika-Budur Kalila, a senior Communications Studies student. I am originally from Kazakhstan and this is my third and last semester at NU. This semester I had an opportunity to intern at Niagara Frontier Publications as a reporter/journalist.

In my case, I started my internship one-and-half months earlier before the classes, so I had a chance to spend more time in the field. It helped me to be flexible during the semester.

At the internship, I had couple of assignments. I attended several town board meetings, and after a month started covering the meetings for the paper. Reporting included attending the event, taking pictures, recording and asking questions from related parties. The next day I would come to the office to write articles about the meetings.

Also, I was assigned to take pictures at different events. Mostly, I visited Lewiston-Porter High School. I met with the Superintendent and PR representatives of the school who made my access to the area easier. Other big local events such as Artpark shows, summer festivals also were on the list of assignments. Since I was an international student, all these local celebrations were new to me, thus, I also had chance to enjoy and explore foreign culture and traditions.

In my last month, I started doing interviews, which eventually became my favorite part of the internship. So far, I have interviewed Victoria’s Hair Salon in Youngstown, shops in Lewiston such as Chantilly Rose Boutique, Cal’s Grinders, 700 Bistro and Cafe. Working with these businesses helped me to improve my communications and managerial skills. I had to deal with everything myself: reaching the owners out, arranging a date and time, preparing questions, taking pictures and transforming their stories to the newspaper. In the beginning, I used to spend hours on my articles. I remember working 8 hours on one story. However, with every new article my working hours were getting lower and my motivation higher. My last articles required only 2-3 hours and this result made so happy that I did net regret spending my summer 6000 miles away from my home.

Along with town board meetings, I attended few fundraising and social awareness meetings. For example, during the meeting of North Tonawanda School Safety District, I met a lot of people who are doing valuable work for the community. They were complaining that people do not know about them, and me, being the only press-representative, was assigned to be their “voice.” At that meeting, I realized that delivering truth to people and supporting valuable issues related to the community, is what I want to do for the rest of my life.

To all students who want to pursue a career in Communications, I would definitely suggest completing this type of internships before graduation. All the classes I took at college were useful during my fieldwork. Only during the internship I understood why I had to take that required courses. Seeing current journalists and their work does not only gain you an experience but also inspires you. Even if it doesn’t inspire, it will help to determine if the student is receiving the desired degree.

Nevertheless, there were a few challenges I faced. Firstly, it requires perfect time-management, especially if you are interning during the fall or spring semesters. For instance, in summer it was easy, in fall very busy. To overcome this, adjusting a time properly can help a lot. Secondly, not all interviewees are aware of the purpose of our work. Sometimes they want us to take sides or write in the way they want. For these situations, a supervisor’s advice is necessary. Finally, meeting deadlines was quite difficult. It also requires a good plan and zero procrastination.

To me, the best feeling for a student is to realize that he/she has learned something. Thanks to this internship I started feeling myself confident in my classes and the career I am planning to pursue. I found what I want to be and this shows that the purpose of the internship was perfectly achieved. I thank everyone who has contributed in my internship journey.