MRC Student of the Month - November 2000

Jennifer Hernández 

(Senior - Journalism & French)

"Internship Experience - Make a Difference"

I started writing as soon as I was able to hold a pen between my chubby fingers. My mom used to say that my fingers would fall off from writing so much. She still says it, sometimes, especially when I'm up late at night writing to friends who live overseas or updating my journal.

Writing came easily to me and my interest in helping others grew as I realized how important words are. I chose to pursue a career in journalism. I wrote in elementary school and high school for the schools' newspapers. I continued writing when I came to Penn State and wrote for the Daily Collegian. However, none of those experiences really gave me a sense that my articles were "making a difference" within the communities that the papers covered. I always thought that someday my writing would have a larger influence on the lives of many different people. Writers know that words have power, but as a minority journalist in a predominantly white career field, I didn't know if I was ever going to get a chance to exercise such power.

Well, I got my chance in the summer of 1998. I accepted an internship at a Spanish-monthly called Hola, Berks in Reading, PA. I went into the internship a little scared because I had never written newspaper articles in Spanish before. I was worried that I would make grammatical mistakes and place my "accents" where they did not belong. But, as the weeks went by, I became aware of a need so great that mastering Spanish grammar proved trivial compared to it. That great need was dealing with the sociopolitical realities of Hispanic communities in the United States.

During the three months I spent at the monthly, I sensed that my articles really "connected" with readers-the Hispanic community, my people-in a way in which many journalists could only dream. I wrote articles on buying a home, escaping domestic violence, and avoiding the devastation of HIV (human immunodeficiency virus). At the time, HIV was a newsworthy topic in Reading because a health report listed the city as the sixth highest in Pennsylvania with reported cases of HIV.

At Hola, Berks, I made some important discoveries. Writing articles allowed me to help people who needed it the most. From my interviews and observations, I realized that people were unaware of many opportunities that were available to them. In fact, some of these people did not even know that they were eligible to buy a home, or that they were worthy of love and respect. The knowledge that people were uninformed of these basic facts upset and offended me deeply.

My internship experience helped me realize that we, the current generation of young adults, with all of our education and privileges, could have a positive influence on our communities. It's not always the people who have a poor quality of life that we need to help. Sometimes, it's also the people who have "moved up," and forgotten who helped them get there. I would like to encourage my generation to get involved in any way, shape or form to help people who are in need. Use the education that we have so graciously received and make our communities better. Don't just help your own race or ethnicity. Help everyone that you can. You won't regret it.

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