NPC Scholarship Students’ Updates: March 2019

MEANINGFUL INTERNSHIPS! That’s what almost all of our 10 current NPC Scholarship students are hoping to find for this summer. If there is anything that you, our members, can do to help, please let me know.

Mark Pierre, our Endowed FGCU Journalism Scholarship student, attended the March NPC luncheon. Photography is his passion, and he has been writing and doing photography for East Coast Magazine for the last few months. He now has his own photography business, which has been doing well, and he’s currently working on his business website. He plans to pursue his photography/photo-journalism business after graduating in May.

Ellie Rushing, our other graduating senior (Rollins College), is a Fulbright semi-finalist and a finalist for another program, returning to Africa and doing storytelling. She’s also applying for summer internships and just submitted the NPR applications. Ellie has been editor-in-chief of her college newspaper for the past two years.

Maria Cortes, a junior at Wartburg College (Iowa), was in Denver fall semester, interning at the Mile High Youth Corps doing outreach for their Land Conservation group. She recently went to the U.S. Hispanic and Latino Institution Conference in Chicago, where she also had the opportunity to meet Beto O’Rourke and Julian Castro, and was interviewed by CNN reporter Leyla Santiago. During the recent spring break she worked with the Student/Farmworker Alliance in her hometown of Immokalee to help with their major action, getting Wendy’s to sign onto the Fair Food Program, which protects farmworkers from sexual violence and exploitation. She interns again this summer in Rochester, New York, doing videos, writing articles, and managing a community website. She is considering graduate school after she graduates, spring 2020.

Tamica Jean-Charles, a junior at Florida International-Miami, is working to find a meaningful summer internship. NPC member Marqueeta Curtis-Haynes is helping her with this endeavor.

Kala Parkinson, a sophomore at UF, has applied to be a contributing writer for a small magazine in Gainesville, The Fine Print. She’s also involved with the Florida Student Magazine Association. This summer Kala plans to stay in Gainesville and is exploring an internship there. She asked me to write a letter of recommendation to go with her application to the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, UF, for their communications internship that includes interviewing and writing stories for their annual newsletter.

Shelly Westervelt, also a sophomore at UF, was in NYC during her recent spring break with a UF club; they toured magazine offices such as Seventeen and Bustle, trying to plan for a future internship. Currently, she interns for a fitness entrepreneur in Gainesville, is a contributing writer at the school newspaper, The Alligator, and is a writer for UF Panhellenic. Shelly is majoring in Telecommunications/Broadcast News, and has previously shadowed NPC member Rachel Pierce at NBC2 Morning News. She would love an internship with broadcast news or magazine writing to help build her experience in those areas.

Camilla Cal, a freshman at UCF, joined the Radio Television Digital News Association at UCF and tells her mentor, Carole Greene, that it’s been interesting because she has met some local journalists who have helped her learn how to use public records and given her other tips in stories. Her favorite class, currently, is Principles of Journalism because the professor is engaging and brings in a different guest journalist or media specialist speaker every class. She’s also looking for a summer journalism/communication internship in Naples.

Sebastian Languidey, a freshman at Florida Atlantic University, has been traveling throughout the state of Florida during his spare time since he and his family moved to Florida before his senior year at Naples High School. He says that he has been writing a lot and has a passion for all things sports. He’s looking for a summer job in Naples, or an internship.