Riding the Politics Passion Train
By Felicia Russell (MA '07)

Master’s students Rebecca Cole and Eric Barendsen with WCP&J Executive Director Terry Michael. Photo by Beth Gaeddert

This spring, two more SJMC students got an inside look at national politics. Eric Barendsen and Rebecca Cole are the 24th and 25th CU students to participate in the Washington Center for Politics & Journalism’s internship program.

For 20 years, the P&J program has placed about 500 budding journalists in internships with national media outlets including NPR, the Wall Street Journal and the Chicago Tribune. Michigan State University is the only school to have more P&J alumni than CU.

“Both schools are way ahead of the competition,” said WCP&J Executive Director Terry Michael, “which says to me that the J-school at Colorado is doing an excellent job of preparing hard-news reporters.”

CU’s P&J alumni are certainly a talented and driven group of people. After graduating, they have gone on to interview presidential candidates and change state sunshine laws; work for organizations such as the Wall Street Journal, the Rocky Mountain News and the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Kimberly Morrison (’05)

Those grads said their time with CU and the WCP&J prepared them to go for and get jobs at top-notch news organizations. Kimberly Morrison (’05) interned with Knight Ridder during her internship in spring of 2005.

“I haven’t come across an editor yet who wasn’t impressed with that,” Morrison said. “There are so many big-name media offering an internship spot through the program, and that’s because the program itself has a stellar reputation for finding the most promising young journalists in the country and grooming them to be the best.

“I left college and went directly to cover the world’s largest retailer when a lot of other J-school grads were having to take jobs at tiny papers and bum beats making a lot less,” she said.

“I’ve since moved on to cover health care for a business journal, but the skills I learned while in the program have and will continue to serve me well.”

David Tauchen (‘06) worked for Bloomberg TV during his fall 2005 internship and now works for KOAA-TV in Colorado Springs. “I think the experience I got at WCP&J has put me ahead of other applicants in the jobs I’ve landed,” Tauchen said. “It’s given me perspective and knowledge when I approach political stories. Overall, it’s made me a better reporter. I highly recommend this experience to any student.”

CU’s large pool of P&J alumni have been a valuable resource for current students who are applying to the program. Master’s student Eric Barendsen is in D.C. for the program, interning for Legal Times. He said he talked to Tauchen before the program’s “notoriously hard interview.”

David Tauchen (‘06)

“(David) remembered that Terry Michael asked him what were the two most politically influential books he’d read that had shaped his views. So I was armed and dangerous on that one,” Barendsen said.

“He also helped me prepare for the ‘Terry Michael 30-question political trivia quiz,’ which is the second half of the interview. My advice: Know your presidents, review your civics and pray.”

Before he completed his P&J internship this spring, Barendsen was offered a media relations job with the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. He will join the DOE this summer.

The P&J semester is a busy but rewarding experience for most students. In between writing for the Chicago Tribune about government spending and presidential dogs, current P&J intern and CU master’s student Rebecca Cole said she manages to write a blog.

In February, she reflected on the experience thus far: “ ‘When you find your passion, you will realize that you didn’t find it; it found you.’ That’s part of a speech Condoleezza Rice gave last year at Glamour’s Women of the Year event. The quote went on to say something like, ‘and then all you have to do is hang on.’ I remember reading it and thinking, ‘That is exactly right.’

“And now I am just hanging on for dear life. Because my passion crazy train is getting faster and faster and I am gripping it with everything I’ve got.… But it’s in a good way, a great way, an ‘I can’t believe this happening but OMG it is more fun and more rewarding than I ever thought possible’ way.”

For many CU/WCP&J alumni, they are still riding that “passion crazy train” that their D.C. experience set in motion.

“The time spent with my editor was some of the most valuable editing I’ve ever had. I worked long days and spent weeks working on an in-depth project that put all I learned to the test. I left not only a better reporter, but with a better appreciation for great editors and the dynamic between the two. I not only would recommend it for other students, I would do it again myself if I could. It’s a really priceless experience that I still cherish today. Anyone who gets a chance to experience it should feel incredibly proud. It’s a big deal.” – Kimberly Morrison (’05)

Michael Mehle (’89)

"It’s impossible to deny the immeasurable impact of my time in D.C. Working in a bureau full of veteran reporters – a handful of them Pulitzer winners; spending a week covering a Supreme Court case; filling in for the White House correspondent; tracking down jurors at the conclusion of the monumental John Poindexter trial; having lunch with Eleanor Clift; attending seminars with the top brass from both political parties. Experiences like those would be a boost at any point in a journalist’s career; to get it at the launching pad is almost unfair. I left D.C. with a greater, richer understanding of how our federal government worked, how the best in our business attack their jobs and what I needed to work on to get ahead in my own career.” – Michael Mehle (’89)

“I learned about the maneuverings legislators go through to pressure each other to pass bills after watching the battle over Yucca Mountain. I use that today when I cover legislative issues affecting the people I cover. It was while covering Congress that I ran into my first politician who would blatantly lie to me, denying comments she made. Thanks to the advice of one of the reporters in the bureau, I also learned how to deal with people like her – when faced with someone I think will dispute the accuracy of my quotations, I record them and make sure they know it. Since I started doing that, I’ve never had someone deny they told me something .... Once I moved to Pennsylvania, I discovered the state’s Right to Know Law was abysmal – one of the worst in the nation. I joined SPJ to try to change that. Thanks to the internship in D.C., I understood how legislatures worked .… We have a new law that went into effect this year, and while it isn’t perfect, it’s a lot better than the joke we used to operate under.” – Susan Schwartz (’92)

“WCP&J directly impacted what I do today. I own my own political communications firm, Triple C Strategies, and regularly write freelance political commentary for state-based and national news sources, including Human Events. WCP&J gave me a front- row seat as history unfolded and taught me to think on my feet. I was standing outside the oval office when JFK Jr.’s body was discovered in the Atlantic Ocean. There was Bill Clinton’s desk, the same desk that JFK Jr. played under when his own father was president. It was surreal. WCP&J gave me Sam Donaldson as a mentor, and I got to spend five months conducting economic analysis at CNN’s Washington Bureau. The program set me up well to become a U.S. Senate press secretary after graduation, where just weeks into my tenure, I watched the 9/11 terrorist attacks unfold from my office window. In countless ways, WCP&J changed my life. “ – Jessica Peck Corry (’01)

Mariwan Hama-Saeed (MA ’08)

“The P&J semester was one of the most amazing experiences of my career. The internship had me doing everything and going everywhere. I rode in President Bush’s motorcade for pool reports. I covered the White House and field-produced live interviews from Capitol Hill. It was an amazing opportunity, learning how government works from the inside. After graduating in December ’06, I went to work for a CBS station in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. This was in the months leading up to the Iowa caucuses. I got a chance to interview all of the presidential candidates face-to-face. The P&J semester experience really comes in handy when you are sitting across from Barack Obama. Being part of P&J has helped me out in all of the interviews I’ve done with politicians. The program immerses you into the national political discussion. You learn about the major issues from ground zero. When you’re interviewing policy makers and presidential candidates, you have to know what’s going on, what people are concerned about. It’s about gathering the best information for your viewers. If you don’t understand what they want to know, you’re wasting the opportunity.” – David Tauchen (’06)

“I was accepted to the Politics & Journalism Internship in Spring 2008. It was a great opportunity for me to learn about politics and the government. It was especially exciting because of the election campaign. For me, as an international student, it was really an incredible, eye-opening experience. The guests who gave lectures were mostly experts in different fields and had great inside knowledge of how government works. The internship was also excellent. If I have a chance to do it again, I would not hesitate to go back.” – Mariwan Hama-Saeed (MA ’08)