Newsweek and The Daily Beast- Week 1

As I try to figure out what I'm going to wear to work tomorrow, I have a little time to reflect on the incredible first week I've had as an intern for Newsweek and The Daily Beast.

I arrived Monday- in the middle of a Manhattan rainstorm- and was ushered up to the second floor of the IAC building in Chelsea, home to Newsweek and The Daily Beast. I reported to Katie Baker, managing editor of the Women in the World section. I'll be spending the next several weeks as a WITW intern along with 2 other girls (WITW is larger than the social media department and therefore needed more help).

Before I started interning everyone asked me, "What are you going to be doing? Making coffee?" But even during my interview, I had a feeling that I wouldn't be doing 'typical intern stuff.' Within five minutes of arriving, I was seated at a computer and told to put together a cheat.

If you're unfamiliar with The Daily Beast, we put together a 'cheat sheet' that has little summaries of major news stories, followed by a link to read the full story either on our website or another news site. There's a cheat sheet on DB, and one on WITW. The other two interns and I are responsible for putting together cheats for one of our three sections; News, Lifestyle, and Call to Arms.

I was put in charge of Call to Arms, and within an hour I had a cheat up on the website. I ended up putting together 3 cheats that day, totaling 16 by the end of the week!

I LOVE my internship. I'm not making copies or doing busywork, I'm actually putting together an integral part of our site and bringing important stories to people's attention. Call to Arms highlights injustice or problems that women face. I've put together cheats on acid attacks in India, the problems that Turkish female protesters face, and campaigns against domestic violence in Saudi Arabia.

However, the most exciting part of my internship was Thursday afternoon, my last day before the weekend (I only work four days a week). Katie asked me to transcribe an interview, which isn't as easy as it sounds.

The interview was with Shohreh Aghdashloo, an Iranian actress who I admire a lot, so obviously I was excited to transcribe an interview with her! It took 5 hours, since the interview was recorded over the phone and Shohreh has a very deep voice and an Iranian accent. While it was a tough job, it was fun in a weird sort of way.

I really love my job, and even though I'm gone nearly 12 hours between my commute and actual work, I can't wait for another week to start.

If you want to read some of my cheats, check out the WITW page and take a look (I'm not going to post each individual cheat because it would take up too much room)!

http://www.thedailybeast.com/witw.html