Layla Aslani

After lunch, Robert dropped me off at the downtown branch of the P.I. where I met up with Hector, another reporter. He took me to a press conference at the Seattle Police Department about a man who was shot by a police officer. The press conference had other journalists there, along with news cameras. It was nice to attend a press conference as I have not done that before.

After that, I took a taxi back to the main P.I. building. I found Robert, but he didn't have much going on for me to watch, Kery was out on an interview and Phuong was writing on deadline. Phuong suggested I talk to Athima, a features writer. Athima was really great and we talked for over an hour. She gave me tons of awesome advice about writing cover letters, how to do good in an interview and other career advice. She also told me about how at the P.I. there are people designated as writing coaches who help journalists when they are stuck or aren't quite sure how to approach a story. They are kind of like editors, only they have more time to help because they have less duties than editors. I thought this was a really cool setup and think more papers should have writing coaches.

After that I went and watched Robert conduct a phone interview and talked with Kery some more. Robert has a huge pile of books on his desk that publishers send him to review. Of course, he does not have time to read or review them all, so for the most part they just sit there. He explained the P.I. receives a lot of books and that since it is costly to send them back the P.I. sells them in a garage sale type thing and then uses the money to buy cakes for special occasions. He said I was welcome to take any of the books so I searched through the pile and found 3 books, hopefully I'll have time to read them over the course of this semester.

Before I knew it my day at the P.I. had come to an end and Robert gave me a ride to my hotel. I learned so much at the P.I. it was amazing. It is a week later and I still feel like I am absorbing all of the information! Everything I learned will help me out in my future career and I am so thankful I had the opportunity to do this. I am also appreciative of Kathleen Stevens at the Alumni Association for making all of the necessary arrangements, everything went smoothly. If anyone out there is reading this and is a junior or senior, you should apply to become a Michigan Apprentice, even if you think there is no way you would ever win. I had my doubts about applying but I did, and I'm sure glad I did.