A year ago, I had
I was selected to work on CNBC's Digital Breaking News team as a fellow during the summer of 2016. While a fellow at CNBC, I was a journalism student at the University of Missouri, studying convergence journalism — a sort of combination of multimedia and broadcast journalism.
As a journalism student, I was interested in covering
One of the bigger stories I worked on last summer was the Orlando nightclub shooting rampage. I had to write about the aftermath of the massacre, including how thousands of people packed blood donation centers in Florida — with the exception of gay men, who were not allowed to donate.
My interests have since expanded, thanks in part to the fellowship. At CNBC, I worked (and continue to work) on stories I had previously not covered before. As a result, I learned a lot. I helped CNBC with coverage of the markets — including the Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq composite, currencies, oil and gold. The markets, as of late, have been an important indicator how investors feel about President Donald Trump's policies. I also wrote breaking-news stories in company earnings, which is a quarterly report on a public company's performance.
It all sounds intimidating, but the entire team at CNBC.com was incredibly helpful and informative. The newsroom gave me all the tools I needed to be successful in that position. At noon, all the interns packed into the boardroom for a "Lunch and Learn" where we met some of the top journalists in the industry.
While an intern at CNBC.com, I produced several breaking-news articles every day, created social videos for the digital video team and even had time to produce my own original featured content. By the end of the program, I could tell my writing and reporting skills had improved significantly, and I learned new techniques for producing video as well.
Post-fellowship, I continue to work at CNBC as news associate. I write breaking news, including stories on Trump and events around the world and cover the markets. I owe a great deal of my knowledge and experience today to that fellowship. I plan to continue to build my reporting skills at CNBC.