The NASW Internship Fair and Mentoring Program both took place at the recent AAAS meeting in Boston, and provided student members and members new to the science writing business with excellent opportunities to find internships and navigate the shoals of the craft.
Thirty-nine mentor-mentee pairs were forged this year, possibly the highest number to date. Freelance Dan Ferber gave opening remarks during the program's orientation and freelance writer John Miller weighed in with useful advice as well. Program co-coordinator and NASW education committee co-chair Rob Irion invested much time in the matchmaking process, keying mostly off subject areas and career interests to produce productive pairings. "By all appearances, it was very successful," noted Irion, who directs the science writing program at UC Santa Cruz. "I observed many pairs spending time together in the newsroom, in the halls chatting with other journalists, and so on. All 10 of my students who participated were very happy with the guidance they received."
For the second year, AAAS funded 10 students to attend the meeting, paying for their transportation to Boston and expenses while at AAAS. NASW was given total control in choosing the travel stipend winners. Out of the 26 students who applied, Rob chose the ten best based on experience and clips. The students were thrilled with the experience. One student said attending the AAAS meeting allowed him to see "what an exciting future science journalism holds."
The Internship Fair, organized for the second consecutive year by intrepid NASW volunteer Jenny Cutraro, was also a record-setting event. Sixteen recruiters representing a cross-section of the science writing landscape helped introduce 60 NASW student members to the array of internship possibilities. Students from around the country were given the opportunity to spend time with representatives of iconic science writing venues, including Smithsonian, Science, Science News, New Scientist, Discover, Chemical & Engineering News, The Scientist, Science Editor and Conservation. A number of national laboratories, including Fermilab, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Argonne National Lab and Brookhaven National Lab, had representatives on hand as did the Genetics and Pubic Policy Center, the American Geophysical Union, the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.
"I had the chance to talk with a bunch of the recruiters during the fair, and they all said this was an incredibly talented bunch of students," said Cutraro. "I got follow-up e-mails from several recruiters thanking us for making a pool of potential interns so easily accessible, and more than one said they'd have a hard time picking just one from the group."
The Internship Fair and the Mentoring Program are projects of the NASW Education Committee, co-chaired by Irion and Ohio State's Jeff Grabmeier, both of whom invested much time and effort to make these events a success.
