“Reading a magazine is a whole experience,” says Amari Pollard ’17. This summer, Pollard will have a whole new experience— writing for Parents magazine as an editorial intern.
For Pollard, a communication and film studies major, magazine production is “way more meticulous and formulated than anything I’ve experienced.” As the only intern for Parents, she handles a variety of tasks. She researches the most effective exercise apps and the qualities of the “perfect” modern American family. She assists the beauty and lifestyle editors. She even works directly under the executive editor, Chandra Turner.
Most important, she writes her own pieces, available online and soon in print. For her articles, she interviewed Olympic gold medalist Dominique Dawes and brought awareness to the “Wipe Out Diaper Need” campaign. Writing for Parents, she says, has taught her that “things need to be done fast, they need to be accurate, they need to be done with enthusiasm, and you have to be willing to say yes to anything.”
Pollard has always felt drawn to the more visual aspects of magazine editing. With magazines, she says, “you get to see a story all the way from its conception to the page, with all the images and textures that will compliment it.” Her experience made her an ideal candidate for Parents. Pollard has written for USA Today College, Elite Daily, Inside Lacrosse, and Women of Upstate New York Magazine, as well as serving as the Editor-in-Chief for The Dolphin and as a contributing author and photographer for the Salamander, Le Moyne’s literary journal.
She had been actively searching for internships when she asked Professor Leslie Streissguth, Pollard’s mentor in the Communication and Film Studies Department and Career Services Department, for help. “Professor Streissguth is one of my biggest supporters at Le Moyne— I knew she would tell me where to look.” The two worked together to find the right opportunity.
Pollard is a recipient of an Ignite Summer Fellowship, a merit-based summer internship award that provides financial support for students in the College of Arts and Sciences. Recipients must meet the fellowship’s competitive requirements and complete a summer internship for academic credit. Through this fellowship, Pollard is able to live and work in New York, her dream since she first visited the city.
“When I came to Le Moyne,” she says, “I came with the intention of getting an internship at a major magazine the summer going into my senior year. And now I’m doing it and it definitely wasn’t on my own. My family and the Le Moyne community has made sure I realized my full potential and has placed people within my life to make sure I get to where I want to go. I feel blessed every day to be where I am, and every time I look up at the building, I smile. I walk around New York with a huge smile plastered on my face, but I can’t help it. I’m just so grateful. And this scholarship has made my experience even better than I could have imagined.”
You can read Amari's stories
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Communications and film studies
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