I’ve actually found something worthwhile to blog about.
The Hatchet, unbeknownst to most outside 2140 G St. and even a few people inside of it, participates in the School Without Walls internship program. As far as I can tell, most SWW students are required at some time during their high school tenure to intern somewhere in the city. Because of The Hatchet’s proximity to the magnet School Without Walls (at 2130 G St., the school can be glimpsed through my office window), high school students are naturally attracted to our independent publication.
Each semester, The Hatchet gets about four to five SWW students interested in interning here. Last semester I didn’t hire an intern, out of a concern that the student wouldn’t have anything to do here. In my four years at The Hatchet, I’ve worked alongside five or six SWW interns, only one of whom was given a chance by editors to ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING. The rest, thanks to our neglect, did their homework or surfed the Internet.
I decided that this semester, my last, would be different. I’d hire an SWW intern, and that person would get the chance to write and edit with me every week. After a few interviews with prospective interns, I decided on Paloma Ellis, a SWW junior. So far things have been going great. Paloma spends about six to eight hours a week writing, reporting and editing with me. The Hatchet has published two of her articles so far. Click on the links below to read them:
“Travel writer offers advice to aspiring authors,” 2/16
Korean scholar speaks at Elliott School, 2/13
I hope readers of this blog will keep an eye out for Paloma’s work. She’s made great strides in only a few weeks, and I hope she’ll come away from The Hatchet in May with a budding fascination with journalism.