Storyteller

‘More than anything, I think this internship has helped me learn a lot about myself—about how I handle things and how I should and can handle things—and also about being professional, about how to deal with people and problem situations.’

How did you find your JMU in LA internship?

E News was one of the internships that I had on my final list. Tom O’Connor, one of my JMU professors, had connections with E News through Seth Kingsley, who is an E News writer and producer. I had Tom for my scriptwriting class at JMU, and Tom had also talked to me about my YouTube videos that I have been doing on my own since 2007, so he knew about some of what I was capable of doing. So Tom told Seth to check out my work. Seth told me that it was really cool that I’m not just saying that I want to be a writer and director — that I am actually out there already doing the writing and directing.

Talk about some of the things you’ve done with your internship.

Being here at E News for the past two months has been awesome. It has been such an experience because the people here let you have the flexibility to do whatever you are interested in. Not only have I had the desk experience with finding clips, I’ve also been out in the field, as well. It’s really cool to have that kind of contrast, and to be able to learn about the entertainment industry in different capacities, too. Outside of my regular tasks, some really cool things that I’ve been able to do are shadowing producers by following them throughout their day. I’ve also had informational meetings with some of the talent, the hosts, the producers. That’s been great because it’s given me the chance to find out what people like and don’t like about the industry and how they got to where they are now — probably my favorite part because I am a storyteller and I love to hear people’s stories.

Sounds as if you’ve been pretty busy.

I’ve gone on shoots. I’ve done red carpets. Usually at those types of events where there are interviews, I take notes in order to help the producer be able to quickly go back through footage later and find a story. I’ve been to executive producer meetings in the morning when they stack the show, finding the different parts of the show and how they are going to put the show together.

Listen: Mia interviews her JMU mentors

Are you taking classes while in L.A.?

Most of the week, we are at our internship, which is a whole deal within itself, but then we have classes one day each week. We have two classes, Entertainment Industry Through the Decades and then The Creative Producers. I really enjoyed the producers class because we have learned about different kinds of television each week. We learned about reality television, we learned about scripted television,  we learned about entertainment television, news. And each week we get to write, so we’ve written a beat sheet for make-believe Kardashian episode. And for our final project, we got to make our own dream show. We had to develop our own show, write the scripts, write the characters. It has been amazing.

How has this experience impacted your education?

I feel like I am a huge nerd. I love reading and learning about things on the page, but it’s so true when they say that it’s completely different to be experiencing it, to be there and to be a part of it and to be doing it hands-on. At this internship, you meet so many people and make so many connections and build so many relationships. All that is so important, and it’s just fun, too. More than anything, I think this internship has helped me learn a lot about myself—about how I handle things and how I should and can handle things—and also about being professional, about how to deal with people and problem situations. You learn about messing up and mistakes and how to move on from that, about being the best that you can be. You learn a lot about little life lessons. 

Watch: The JMU in LA Program