Journalism Internships: Voices 
How to Apply | Requirements | Credit, Pay, and Cost | Evaluation | Placement | Voices
Krystal Hicks, '07
Krystal Hicks ’07 did her internship as a full-time reporter in the New Hampshire bureau of the Eagle-Tribune of N. Andover, Mass. Here’s what she says about the experience:
I loved the people at the E-T. We all got along so well and we could joke around about the job, but deadlines were always made. It was professional and enjoyable at the same time. I was thrown into the job from day one (a reporter got injured, so I took over his beat), and I made the front page many times during the semester. I pitched a lot of my own story ideas, and in my last week one of my stories, about hearing loss in the military, was the Sunday A-1 centerpiece. That was a GREAT feeling. I worked on that piece for about a month while juggling everything else on the side. The Massachusetts edition of the paper put the story on the cover, too, so it was definitely the finale of my internship. My editors were psyched for me. I walked away a different, and better, journalist.
Read Krystal’s story on hearing loss in the military.
Marcus Weisgerber, '04
From Katrina to Capitol Hill
I had just taken what would be my only shower of the week, but hygiene did not matter -- not here; not now. Sitting on a dock along a bank of the Mississippi River at sunset, just weeks after Hurricane Katrina destroyed many sections of New Orleans, I contemplated possible leads for the story I would file on how the New Hampshire National Guard was helping in the recovery efforts.
As I watched tree limbs and other debris floating by in the murky brown water, part of me left the storm-ravaged city and returned to the Durham office of my Newswriting professor, Jane Harrigan. I could hear her reminding me of the importance a good lead plays in each article. I needed to get the readers’ attention, which today would not be too difficult. Just hours earlier, I’d accompanied four soldiers as they helped a local resident enter a severely flood-damaged home. The putrid stench of several-week-old mold and mildew still filled my nostrils.
Conveying detailed descriptions of my surroundings was essential to these New Orleans articles. There is no way I would have been able to accomplish this, or other assignments during my young career, without the preparation I received during my time in the UNH journalism program.
Small classes and one-on-one interaction between teacher and student are the program’s greatest assets. Teachers not only know your name, they know what is happening in your life. If one professor is not available, another will surely be nearby to help. The discussion-oriented journalism classes also gave me the opportunity to brainstorm ideas and issues with my peers and professors. The faculty always challenged me, never accepting mediocrity. This gave me confidence in my writing and reporting capabilities as I entered the workforce after graduation.
While in college, I also had the privilege to work at UNH’s student newspaper, The New Hampshire, while simultaneously taking classes. The paper gives journalism students not only the opportunity to publish their work, but a chance to interact and receive mentoring from upperclassmen with more experience.
Since graduation, I have worked as an Internet news manager and freelance sports reporter for a major New York newspaper as well as an education reporter for a small daily newspaper. Now I report on national defense in Washington, D.C. The UNH journalism program gave me the confidence to ask any question to anyone, be it an average Joe on the street or a congressman on Capitol Hill.
Marcus Weisgerber ’04 is managing editor of Inside the Air Force in Arlington, Va.
Steve Bodnar, '08
Steve Bodnar ’08 did his internship as a full-time reporter at The Telegraph in Nashua, N.H. Here’s what he says about the experience:
Three hours into my internship, my editor asked me to contact all the school superintendents in the paper’s coverage area for a story about school closings. I thought the task was a little demanding for my first day, but after I started making calls and getting some good quotes, I realized that calling the superintendents wasn’t a task; it was an opportunity.
One of the best things I did before my internship was forget any notion that there were certain types of stories I didn’t want to cover. While I still had my reservations, I forced myself to take every story with an open mind. For example, I’m not a political junkie, so I didn’t have a lot of background on the presidential hopefuls running in the New Hampshire primary. But I covered three candidates: John McCain, Mike Huckabee, and Chris Dodd. It’s been ingrained in us during journalism classes at UNH to do the research, so that’s exactly what I did. I wasn’t going to let the chance to cover these politicians slip through my grasp by making excuses or yielding to my comfort zone.
I looked for interesting angles. No one wants to read how a presidential hopeful went through his or her planned speech before a crowd of people time and time again. People want to know if the candidate said something remarkable or arrived in a snowplow in the middle of a blizzard. Doing my research helped to subdue any anxieties about doing a political story, and keeping an open mind help me to realize that political stories can make great reading.
The reporting internship is a testing ground -- one that comes with a fair amount of forgiveness. Instead of looking at an assignment as a task or as “just another story,” look at each as an opportunity. For the next story, maybe you’ll write a better lead; maybe you’ll get some great quotes; maybe someone will call you or email you telling you what a great job you did.
I will never forget a letter to the editor regarding a story I wrote about a girl who dedicated her life to community service. The man who wrote the letter said the story made him cry and that it prompted him to donate money to a cancer research foundation. It’s moments like those in the internship – and yes, you will get praise – that turn tasks into opportunities.
Steve Bodnar '08.
This story, which was the Sunday centerpiece in both the New Hampshire and Massachusetts editions of the Eagle-Tribune, was one of more than 100 stories that Krystal Hicks reported and wrote during her UNH reporting internship.
Many soldiers
returning from combat
with hearing problems
By Krystal Hicks
Eagle-Tribune
April 27, 2007
When Robert Conley, 22, left his New Hampshire home in 2004 to join the Army, he never thought flying home for a visit would cause him physical pain. But it did -- because of the damage to his ears he suffered as a result of his combat experience in Iraq.
Conley is one of many soldiers suffering from noise-induced hearing loss, a condition specialists now consider an “epidemic” within the military. Sixty percent of soldiers who return from Iraq or Afghanistan suffer from noise-induced hearing loss, and 49 percent also suffer from tinnitus, a potentially debilitating ringing of the ears, according to military audiology reports.
While troops are educated in the proper use of special noise-blocking devices, many audiologists and soldiers say any kind of earplug is impractical.
“While you want soldiers to protect their hearing, you also want them to be able to hear what’s going on around them to keep them safe,” said Nashua-based audiologist Peggy Sheets. “It’s like choosing the lesser of two evils.”
The damage caused by the “lesser” evil is now costing the government more money than ever in compensation to veterans, said Jennifer DuPriest, director of advocacy and public policy for the American Tinnitus Association.
Hearing loss can be quick
With an Improvised Explosive Device explosion sounding at over 140 decibels, a single blast can cause hearing loss or tinnitus instantly, DuPriest said.
Conley, who grew up in Gonic, outside Rochester, said his hearing was “immaculate” when he enlisted, but it deteriorated when he became a gunner for his platoon in Iraq. he first time a bomb blew out his hearing was four months into his deployment, while he was manning the weaponry on top of a Bradley, a minitank.
“We rolled over a bomb,” said Conley, now stationed in Kentucky. “I just remember being knocked out and then coming to and seeing smoke. I guess my commanding officer was screaming, ‘Conley, are you OK?’ over and over, but I couldn’t hear anything.”
The blast caused his ears to bleed, he said, but after a few days of silence, his hearing came back.
He said he lost his hearing six times in Iraq, but that wasn’t a lot compared to others in his platoon.
“There are 19 guys in my platoon,” Conley said. “One lost (his hearing) 17 times. You don’t think it’s a big deal because it happens to everyone. They tell us to suck it up, so we do.”
The decibel level of today’s warfare is the primary reason for an increase in hearing loss, DuPriest said.
“War has always been loud. However, in this particular war, it’s being fought mostly on the ground,” she said. “IEDs detonate at a sound pressure level of 140 decibels, which is loud enough to cause permanent hearing damage and tinnitus in just a few milliseconds.”
Marine Sgt. Francisco Urena of Lawrence was honorably discharged in 2005 after being struck in the cheek with shrapnel in Iraq. Once home, he started worrying about more than his face and his sore back — he kept having to ask people to repeat themselves two or three times before he could understand what they were saying.
“I thought I was having hearing loss,” said Urena, now Lawrence’s veterans agent. “I got tested a couple times. It came back to normal after a while. Everything is loud over there. Even the way people talk. ... And you have the preventive ear protection, but sometimes you get carried away.
“You don’t know when an IED is going to go off next to your tank,” Urena said. “There’s some things you can’t control.”
Earplugs get mixed reviews
New Hampshire National Guardsman Luke Koladish was one of more than 339,000 veterans on disability for tinnitus in 2005. Koladish, who served a year in Iraq, collects $115 a month in compensation, which DuPriest said is the standard payment.
Koladish, who grew up in Windham and now attends the University of New Hampshire, said the high-pitched whine in his ears is more noticeable when he watches TV or reads.
“I just try and ignore it,” Koladish said. “It’s scary, though, because (the VA Center) tells you there’s always a chance your hearing could deteriorate more over time.”
In Iraq, Koladish was stationed near an airstrip, constantly surrounded by loud air traffic.
“The official word is, you’re supposed to wear ear and eye protection at all times,” he said. “But if you’re in the field and have to take your earplugs out to complete a mission, you do it.”
Conley said using earplugs in combat is more of a liability than anything.
“If you wear earplugs, you can’t hear what’s going on around you,” said Conley, whose job as a cavalry scout requires him to be even more aware of his surroundings while he scopes out buildings. “The Bradleys are loud, too, but you still need to be able to hear what’s coming over the radio, so you don’t always wear the earplugs.”
Cavalry scout Matthew Reardon, who grew up in Nashua, said he hasn’t been in combat yet, but his hearing has already been affected.
“The only time anyone actually wears earplugs is when we’re training at a range,” said Reardon, 21, who trained in Egypt for four months. “You just can’t wear your radio and the plugs at the same time.”
Reardon’s father, a disabled veteran, also experienced hearing loss as a result of his time in the military.
North Andover Veterans Agent Edward Mitchell said older veterans have a harder time proving their hearing loss was a result of their service.
“I have older veterans who just don’t have the documentation,” Mitchell said. “In the old days there were no real ear protections. But they didn’t get tested either. ... You know it contributed. They were in engine rooms with no ear plugs. But you can’t prove it, so it makes it difficult for us.”
Risk to others
DuPriest said studies have shown hearing-impaired soldiers can put their entire platoon at risk, as well as themselves. Hearing impairment may delay a soldier’s ability to identify a target by up to 50 seconds, according to “Tank Gunner Performance and Hearing Impairment,” a study published in a 1990 Army Research, Development, and Acquisition magazine.
Anything over 85 decibels of steady noise (aircraft or tanks) or 140 decibels of impulse noise (bombs or weapon fire) can cause damage, according to the U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventative Medicine. The helicopters most commonly used for transport all present steady noise at over 100 decibels, according to the center’s Web site.
“The Bradleys can get up to 158 decibels,” DuPriest said. “And that’s not even when they’re firing the gun.”
DuPriest said even small changes can make a big difference.
“Look at the old aircraft carriers and ships that aren’t acoustically sound,” DuPriest said. “When (the Army) improves body armor and helmets, why not improve them for hearing, too? Without change, this is going to be one of those things that spirals out of control.”
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Staff writer Crystal Bozek contributed to this report.
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