Mason makes careers

Each week, Fourth Estate features a student or alumnus with a great internship or job to highlight the opportunities a degree from Mason can provide.

Avery Powell is a junior Global Aff airs major at Mason with a minor in Electronic Journalism. His ideal job is to become an on-camera correspondent with a network when he graduates. Avery interns for one of the most popular broadcast shows in the area, NBC’s “Meet Th e Press.”

How did you get this internship?

I applied to places like NPR, CBS and I also went to the general NBC website and looked through their different categories. They have different options for network interns, different things for online, multimedia and they also have one specifically for Meet the Press. If you go to MeetThePressNBC.com, they have a section where you can actually email your resume and cover letter to them for consideration.

So what made you pick “Meet The Press,” with all the other options available?

Mostly because when I first visited Mason for a tour, the girl who was actually giving the tour was a “Meet The Press” intern, I believe. I remember her talking about it so that kind of led me to want to do it and then my freshman year it kind of went out of my mind until I applied. It is “Meet The Press,” honestly. It is one of the longest running news programs in the world, and it is also just an example of good, fair news. It is a great place to start and many people who start at “Meet The Press” end up going on and doing successful things, so it was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.

What is a typical day like?

 One project that we are working on is archiving a lot of our video clippings, so from 2000 and from 1947. We’ve been clipping out newspapers or news articles that mention “Meet The Press,” that mention certain shows. Sundays are a totally different story because it is the actual show, so interns are split into three different roles. Three of us are in charge of guest greetings and maintenance of the greenroom, which is where we hold the guests until it is time to go into the studio. We also have the interns that stay with our assistant producers in the control room and there is one intern in the electronic journalism room, or what we call the intake room, who does all the taping. So once the show is over, they collect all the tapes from the show, and they also transcribe some of the footage if they need an interview quickly transcribed during the show.

Who are some of your favorite guests you’ve gotten to meet?

 David Gregory is really cool and he is also around always in the building. I will definitely say that my first show I was the only new intern and Ann Curry was the guest and she was the nicest and took a selfie with me and it was so much fun. I met Bob Woodward of the Washington Post and then this Sunday, Savannah Guthrie of the Today Show guest-moderated the show and the White House Chief of Staff.

What is one of your favorite moments that you have had during your internship?

 I would say talking to Ann Curry outside. Me and another intern escorted her outside and she just talked to us for like ten minutes and it was like a star struck moment for me since I have been watching her since I was very little and just talking to her about journalism and where it is going.