Internships

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Association of American Publishers

Boston-area Publishing Internships

Magazine Publishers of America Internships

Penguin Internship Program

The Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars

W. W. Norton Internship Program

Kirsten Demonstoy, English BSE Major

As an English Education major looking to supplement the “teaching” part of my education, this summer [2007] I’ve been doing an internship with Mountain Home Magazine, a local publishing company based out of Wellsboro, and I’ve been having a fabulous time! I never realized just how many steps are involved in getting a document put together and put on newsstands.

The laid-back atmosphere suits me, and the editors and staff are extremely knowledgeable about publishing programs, sales and distribution, and journalistic writing. Everyone here has gone out of their way to guide, teach, and assist me in assigned tasks like copy editing, using publishing programs, the interviewing process, and, of course, writing, which has undoubtedly been my favorite task. I’ve been able to apply the writing skills and literary knowledge I’ve learned from Mansfield University English professors to my writing assignments, and I’ve received very encouraging feedback.

The best part about my internship thus far, I must say, has been seeing my work in print for the very first time. I would highly recommend that English students, both BA and BSE, take advantage of an internship with the folks at Mountain Home, or with any publishing company for that matter, because the knowledge and experience gained will be an invaluable experience.

Katherine Kounovsky, English B.A. major

During the summer of 2005, I interned at Penguin Books in New York City for precisely ten weeks, and I’ve got to say that it was the most rewarding educational experience of my life. I worked for a senior editor, and my job mostly consisted of reading unsolicited manuscripts and rejecting or approving them. Of course there were parts of my job that weren’t so glamorous. Making copies of 400-page manuscripts, delivering contracts to different departments, running errands in general--these are the things that people typically don’t mention when they’re bragging about their job. I didn’t mind them, though. I viewed them as my part in helping a well-known and respected publishing house run.

All in all, I would recommend that any student do an internship in publishing or otherwise. You learn how a business works. You’re exposed to a world that’s completely different from the collegiate one and asked to function in it. But most of all, you learn more about who you are and what you want, and any experience that can show you something more about yourself is definitely worth doing.