I lived in North County for four years before moving on campus to attend San Diego State University. Being a homebody, I never found reason to travel downtown.
When I did, I didn’t know what to look for. The city appeared to be a grey mess of office buildings, overpriced parking lots and security cameras. I didn’t know how alive the city was until my internship at The San Diego Sun.
The past five months have been a crash course in the fundamentals of journalism. It’s not just about the writing. I’ve improved a lot, and I have the rest of my life to get better. There’s also scheduling, small talk and negotiation. And rolling with the punches and still showing up on time. These are the little tasks that can make or break a story, and I learned that the hard way.
I’ve always been a shy person, so while journalism gave me an outlet for my passion for writing, I still needed to strengthen my people skills. I’ve spoken to countless people over the course of this internship who I never would have gotten the chance to otherwise — unhoused people, nonprofit leaders, museum curators, library workers and entrepreneurs of various stripes. I’ve come away with a deeper understanding of how the heart of San Diego beats.
I’m grateful to Sun Editor Ron Donoho for giving me the chance to pitch my own stories and follow through on them. He took a chance on me when I wanted to cover the House of Palestine’s Annual Lawn Program in April. The pitch itself was not very interesting—the House of Pacific Relations does many lawn programs each year—but keeping an open mind proved fruitful. It gave me the opportunity to highlight the complexity of San Diego’s Palestinian cultural life, and hopefully introduce readers to something new.
Similarly memorable was my feature on the mutual aid group Water and Kindness. Going in, my editor and I thought it was going to be a simple piece about good Samaritans, but it became clear the group was part of a larger story. It was a bit out of The Sun’s geographic coverage area, but I’m proud to have made the connection for our readers.
The people of San Diego, much like the city itself, are a lot more interesting up close than from afar. I still think downtown San Diego is a bit of a concrete jungle, but I’ve come to appreciate the flowers that grow in the cracks. SDSun
Interested in an internship at The San Diego Sun? Reach out to the editor at: rondonoho@gmail.com.
