Lessons learned from an Dateline/Rock Center intern

By Eliza Jordan | gargoyle@flagler.edu

Marissa Marinan, a 21-year-old Flagler College Communications major, spent her summer roaming the halls of NBC’s New York studio after landing an internship with Dateline/Rock Center.

Marinan, who took it upon herself to apply for an unpaid internship in a city that she had never been to, did it all for an experience that she’d gladly do again.

“It’s an experience you can’t get sitting in the classroom,” said Marinan of her internship experience with New York City’s NBC office for Dateline/Rock Center.

Born in Niceville, Fla., the senior applied for and accepted an unpaid internship in an extremely busy and competitive city that she had never even stepped foot in. After taking an investigative journalism class, Marinan’s professor, Robbie Gordon, mentioned the internship opportunity and assisted her in the application process.

Marinan and a fellow intern with Dateline’s Chris Hansen

“Things I learned in electronic news and the investigative journalism class were absolutely crucial for this internship,” Marinan said.

“I felt very confident going into it and knew I was doing things correctly during my internship because I had done the same type of things in my classes,” she said.

After saving up money from previous jobs, not to mention supportive parents, Marinan accepted the summer internship offer with NBC and moved to New York City to live with a previous NBC intern. Her day began at 9:30 a.m. and usually did not end before 5:30 p.m.

Working Monday through Friday as a full-time, unpaid intern, Marinan had a variety of tasks from helping producers log tapes or time-code pieces, calling prospective interviewees, or conducting research for a news story. She was also able to pitch individual story ideas to an NBC producer.

Neither the hours nor the fact that she was unpaid bothered her since she saw it as much-needed experience.

“Any internship, whether paid or unpaid is worth it,” said Marinan. “Experience is so crucial today that an internship is key, and what you learn is so valuable for life after graduation.”

Looking back, Marinan she felt she “learned everything about the business,” got to see how a well-developed story was put together from beginning to end and was able to learn new and interesting editing software that she had never even experimented with beforehand.

Expected to graduate in Spring 2013, Marinan will begin applying for jobs at local news stations when graduation nears. She is also interested in applying with the Golf Channel, as she is also a student-athlete on the golf team.

“I learned that this type of profession is exactly what I want to be doing and it felt like a great fit,” she said.