Meet Our New Intern
January 11, 2012 at 10:32 pm Ryan Jones 1 comment
We thought we’d give our new intern a chance to introduce herself. You’ll be seeing much more of her on the blog throughout the spring semester. —RJ
My name is Emily Kaplan, and I’m very excited to announce that I’ll be The Penn Stater‘s editorial intern this semester.
In my introductory blog post, I could recite the same spiel I’ve given in all my classes so far: “I’m a junior from Montclair, N.J., majoring in journalism. I spent the last two years covering a variety of sports for the Collegian, including women’s volleyball and men’s basketball. I love Chipotle, the beach, and hockey. A fun fact about me is that I coached Stephen Colbert’s son in t-ball. No, Colbert never showed up.”
However, I’d rather tell you about the things I’ll be doing for this blog and why I can’t wait to get started.
Not that I needed any reminding, but it’s clear Penn State alumni are wonderful ambassadors of what’s great about our university. Just last Sunday, I was at the Giants playoff game when I struck up a conversation with the woman sitting next to me. She could whistle louder than anyone in our section and knew just as much about the X’s and O’s of football as a veteran sportswriter. I was quickly impressed.
She asked me where I went to school, and I sheepishly responded “Penn State,” hoping not to incite any altercations with any fans sitting around us. There was beer steadily flowing through the aisles, and I’ve become tired of responding to combative and often uninformed commentary about Jerry Sandusky, Joe Paterno and everything in between.
Not this woman. Her eyes immediately lit up.
“Penn State? No way!” she said. “I went there too!”
We spent the next two-and-a-half quarters casually discussing the state of Nittany Lion football and how State College has changed. There was one thing she said that stuck with me, though. One thing I’ll remember for a while.
“You go to Penn State,” she told me. “Never say that like it’s a bad thing.”
There are so many great things about this university. Whether you graduated in 1940 or 2010, there has to be something about Penn State — a favorite lunch spot, an interesting class, an inspiring professor — that you’re always nostalgic about. Through this blog, I’ll be reporting as a voice of the students. I’ll be posting about the pulse of Penn State — your bridge, of sorts, from where you are now to what’s going on around campus.
As we all try to make sense of everything going on with Penn State, I don’t think that bridge has ever been this important.
Emily Kaplan, intern
Entry filed under: The Penn Stater magazine, Undergraduate students, University Park campus. Tags: Daily Collegian, Emily Kaplan.
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1. richard | January 12, 2012 at 9:08 am
Welcome, Emily, and I look forward to your thoughts. I recall your excellent, reflective piece soon after “the scandal” broke in early November. I also recall the good pub your got from Peter King in his MMQB column. I am guessing you are building a strong career.