Live From Studio A. This is Today…
Trying to dodge tourists, screaming girls, and security guards at 30 Rockefeller Plaza just to get through the revolving doors was just one of the difficult tasks I faced. With my internship on the Weekend Today Show fresh doors for my future career opened and relationships sparked between fellow interns, producers and talent.
My internship was unique because I worked Wednesday through Sunday. Every Saturday and Sunday waking up at four in the morning to get down to the plaza before the show starts was not a struggle but an adventure. Every morning I would encounter new experiences. For instance, one challenge I faced was having to pick up Joey Chestnut (the winner of the National Coney Island Hot Dog Eating Contest) from Good Morning America and bringing him back to Today in order for him to make his air time. It was hectic working on such time constraints, but it was a tremendous learning experience.
One great thing about the Today Show internship is that interns are given weekly scheduled meetings with executive producers and talent to learn exclusive information on how to get started and key insights to the business; especially in using NBC to network, communicate, and experience. Interns are also given informational sessions to learn more about aspects of the company, for instance the famous NBC page program.
Each day brought new and exciting networking opportunities such as sitting down and getting the opportunity to talk to talent such as Matt Lauer, Meredith Viera and Lester Holt or getting to read the teleprompter in the studio to add to your resume reel. Especially with Weekend Today, having only four interns left us with more hands on activity. Almost every week I would go on a shoot either such as a story at the American Girl Doll Store or hunting down eligible men to appear on the show for a crazy hair story. On one shoot a car drove me to a suburban town in New Jersey where I assisted in the Chinese Adoption segment. I met a family, in which the mother adopted four children from China and has raised them on her own. This was something I was thrilled to be apart of to meet such different people and learn their stories.
I really learned a bit of everything. I now know how to log, how to edit, how to pitch stories, how to dub tapes. NBC was like a family: the talent, interns, and producers, and all employee help out and display why NBC is such a success. The perks of working at 30 Rock is not just getting a V.I.P seat to the Summer Toyota Concert Tour, though being front row to Rascal Flatts and Natasha Beddingfield and may more was a great opportunity, but it is the people that you meet and work with and the knowledge you gain from the hands on experience that makes the internship priceless.
The late hours, the early hours, all my time spent was worth what I experienced and learned last summer. NBC Universal is not just a production company, it is truly a family.
Carolyn McEvoy is a junior at Michigan State University.
