Reflections on a Week at The Buzz

Buzz interns Melissa Darlow and Kayla Roseman at a celebratory wrap-up lunch.

Today marks the conclusion of Kayla Roseman and Melissa Darlow’s week-long spring internship at The Buzz. These Emery/Weiner seniors reflected on what it was like to work in The Buzz office this week, rather than learn in the classroom.

Kayla Roseman

I have always been interested in journalism and improving my writing skills. When my school, The Emery/Weiner School, told us about our internship week, I knew exactly what I wanted to do: work for The Buzz Magazines. Ever since the magazines started, my family has been receiving and reading The Bellaire Buzz each month. I always loved reading about the different cover articles and seeing people I knew or recognized in the magazine.

Once I started interning at the office, I was surprised by how much I learned each day. I never realized how many people are involved in making the magazines ready for the public. I was impressed by how organized and passionate each person was about the success of the magazine. I was also able to learn more about the overall goal of the magazine, which is to get stories from all four neighborhoods. I really like their plan of focusing more on the people in the neighborhoods and their unique stories rather than just covering the same familiar faces over and over again.

My favorite part about working at The Buzz Magazines was seeing my blog post go up on the website. I learned that the first draft of an entry will not always be perfect. It took lots of time and effort to finally get the right word limit and message across, but once it was complete, it was rewarding to see my hard work pay off.

Melissa Darlow

I always look forward to receiving The Bellaire Buzz once a month. I love to browse through the pages and see what’s going on around town and spot friends and neighbors. When Senior Internships started to approach, my heart was set on spending the week at The Buzz.

I was welcomed into the office by incredibly friendly staff who were all enthusiastic about their jobs. The first day, a delicious chocolate cake was served to Editor Joni Hoffman to celebrate her birthday. Shortly after the celebration, I received an assignment sheet of the week’s goals and topics to work on. I have devoted my time here to writing blog posts (see our post on the rodeo experience), finding events occurring around the city, crafting a Neighborhood Tails piece about my adorable dog Riley, and compiling a list of seniors headed off to college for a future article.

Not only have I improved my writing abilities, I also had the opportunity to learn about the advertising side of the magazine. Account Manager Darsey Swaim thoroughly explained the media kit used in securing advertisement deals and even let us sit in on a meeting with a future client. She took us out on the adventure of “cold calling” where we popped up in stores and offered our advertising services.

Overall, I have had a great week interning at The Buzz. The work I have done here is meaningful and not once was I sent out to pick up coffee or run around the city completing busy work. Now that I have observed what happens behind the scenes, I have a newfound appreciation of magazines and the immense work that goes into creating them.