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Cedar Mill News Interns

Introducing our interns

Since 2013, Cedar Mill News has depended on the work of young interns to edit the Business News and Community News content. They take the raw information provided by local groups and businesses and edit and format it according to our Style Sheet. They get experience in the real-world writing business, and we get material that has all the relevant information in an easy-to-read form.

Auveen Hajar, Shawna Muckle, Genevieve Coblentz, and Cami Villanueva help bring you the News each month

This month we’re turning the spotlight on these diligent volunteers—it’s an unpaid position since the News runs on a shoestring!

Genevieve Coblentz, a Sunset High student, has been the Managing Editor for several months. She takes the raw material—emails and documents submitted by our sources—and posts it in our Google Docs folders for the editors to work on. She follows up with the editors and proofs their work before it comes to me for the final edit.

I met Genevieve when she came to the office with her mom to pick up the gift basket she had won in one of our Cedar Mill History Museum raffles. She expressed an interest in getting involved just when I was in need of a few more editors.

She says, “I definitely feel like I have gained valuable working experience and have learned a lot about what it means to be an editor. It is hard work, but it is a lot of fun. The hardest part is coordinating with other editors. Everyone has a different schedule and it can be difficult to quickly communicate with coworkers to finish the editing before the deadline, but in the end it always works out!”

“I enjoy learning more about the community that I live in,” she notes. “I never really paid much attention to or attended many community events, but I have enjoyed becoming a lot more active in the community. I also love to see my name printed in the paper! She continues, “I really enjoy journalism and I want to find some way to continue to participate in this world, but I want to study ocean engineering in the future.”

Genevieve brought along her friend Cami Villanueva. “Genevieve knew that I was really into writing, so she thought it was a good fit for me,” she says. “I hope to gain more skills in detail-orientation. When I practice editing, I can write better myself. Also, I hope to gain some connection throughout the community. Recently, I’ve been to a CPO1 meeting, and it has made Genevieve and I want to become more active in our community.” She and Genevieve wrote an article for the May issue giving the student view of BSD budget woes, following their attendance at the CPO meeting.

Cami wants to start a literary journal for people in the community to submit stories to be shared. She says, “My parents like to tell their friends that I intern for CMN. I’ve shown them the articles that I work on. I hope in the future interns get more opportunities to attend meetings and become more involved.”

Shawna Muckle heard about Cedar Mill News from a post on her neighborhood’s NextDoor forum. She says, “I didn’t begin working until just a few months ago in March.

Shawna is a student at Jesuit High. She notes, “Being an editor for my school paper, alongside my work with the Cedar Mill News, has definitely helped me develop a pretty close attention to detail. I also think that, as I’m getting the hang of editing, I’m able to think critically and ask good questions. I’m definitely learning a lot about working on a deadline, and it’s been great getting to learn more about community events while I’m working! I’d love to get more opportunities to write and report on events, though I suspect those will come up more as I continue volunteering.”

“Source material comes in a pretty wide variety of formats, and sometimes it’s a bit of a challenge to figure out how to make a segment conform to our style guide while making sure the original intent and meaning of the source is kept in place,” she notes.

“I’ve been interested in being a journalist for a long time. I’m planning on being a journalism major in college. My pretty lofty career goal is to be some sort of political journalist, preferably a congressional reporter, in Washington, D.C.”

Auveen Hajar helps with editing, and also reports on Sunset High events that are open to the public. He says, “I began working for CMN in the summer of 2018. I always knew about Cedar Mill News because I would see it all around our community, however, I found out about this opportunity through a post on Facebook to recruit new student editors. I thought it would be an interesting experience and opportunity.

“I want to learn more about teamwork and truly become a better writer. It really takes a lot to get the paper ready for every new month and it is a huge team effort. Additionally, I have done multiple smaller articles for the News and I can already tell that I have become a better writer just from my experiences this year alone!

“The work is really flexible for me, especially with my busy school schedule. I’m able to do what is expected of me and get my work outside of writing for the news done.

“The hardest part of my work is researching and finding the dates for certain events. In the News, we include smaller events that are local and within our community, and because there is less publicity and advertising for the events, it can be hard to find dates and times when there are no announcements, articles, or news surrounding the event.

“A lot of my friends and family read the paper, and when they see my name underneath an article title they sometimes bring it up to me. I always love reading the full issues and the articles.”

Emily McClaughry will head to college in the fall, unlike the others who are entering their Senior year. She heard about the opportunity from a Facebook post and started working last September.

She says, “I’ve always loved editing, and I believe I have a good ear for writing and editing. I’m also very good when it comes to grammar rules and how things should flow!

“The hardest part of the work is finding time to edit each month’s issue, and deciding how to best convey the information while sticking to the style. The most fun part is getting to edit, but the least fun is when a piece is really different from the style and I have to make a lot of technical edits.

Emily’s Senior Project was a poster about local journalism. She interviewed me and several other local writers. She says, “Local journalism is really important! Thanks to all the readers that keep us going and thanks for the support” We agree!

We hear you, interns! We’ll give you all more opportunities to contribute articles in addition to doing the editing. And if there are students interested in getting involved, please get in touch!

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