Snowden interns joined the Snowden family, regional newspaper professionals and SOJC faculty for a reception. Pictured left to right are Andrew Adams, Christena Hansen, Sara Liebeth, Ben Romano, Jessica Blanchard, Dan Itel, Scott Johnson (OSU), Katie Pesnecker (OSU Snowden 1999), Troy Foster (OSU), Jeremy Lang and Michael Burnham (Snowden 1999).

The Snowden family has a vision for aspiring journalists, and it starts with giving students hands-on newspaper experience. The family established the Charles R. Snowden internship program to give students just this experience.

The summer internship program, established in 1998 to honor Charles R. Snowden, gives students paid experience at regional newspapers in reporting and writing, photojournalism, layout and design.

Internship Coordinator Pam Cytrynbaum says the program provides a vital step in the education of SOJC students. “It’s a wonderful leap students can make after being interns, “ Cytrynbaum said. That’s what the vision of the family is—to give students a break and let them fly.”

The third group of Charles R. Snowden interns gathered with the family, regional newspaper professionals, friends, supporters and SOJC faculty for a reception and dinner at Julie Snowden’s Newberg home on September 22. The celebration honored the continuing success of the partnership between donors, interns and the Northwest newspapers where the interns are placed each year.

Interns are selected by a committee based on their prior journalistic experience, commitment to ethical journalism, academic performance and potential for newspaper careers. These criteria are in the spirit of Snowden’s career. He is remembered as a top-notch editor as well as a mentor to young aspiring journalists.

Dean Tim Gleason sees the importance of an ongoing link between SOJC students and Northwest newspapers.

“The opportunity for students to take what they are learning here at the School and apply it in newsrooms is invaluable. The Snowden family’s commitment to making that happen continues to benefit not only our students but the papers where they spend their summers,” Gleason said.
The Snowden endowment covers half of the intern’s stipend plus administrative expenses. The host newspaper pays the other half. The internship is monitored over the course of the 10 weeks by Cytrynbaum, who visits each newspaper and works with students and editors to foster a learning environment in the newsroom.

This combination of quality students, contact between Cytrynbaum and the host newspapers and focus on Charles R. Snowden’s commitment to good writing and ethical journalism has had immediate positive results.

The program has grown in size over the past two years to ten interns, up from the original class of five.

“The reputation has developed much more quickly than any of us had hoped for,” Cytrynbaum said.

Cytrynbaum sees benefits for participating newspapers as well as interns.

“Most newspapers want students who can do everything, and the nice thing is that’s what they get,” she said.

Jessica Blanchard, a Snowden intern this past summer, said the experience offered a great opportunity to handle many different assignments—all within the first two weeks.

“I’ve covered robberies, three fires, a train derailing, rising gas prices, a shooting. I’ve written features on teen drivers and teen volunteers, plus a profile on a 90-year-old riverboat captain,” she says. “I’ve designed pages and edited.”

Snowden interns have gone on to jobs and internships at The Los Angeles Times, The (San Jose) Mercury News, The Oregonian, The Seattle Times and Chicago Magazine among others.

Newspapers participating in the Snowden Program for summer 2000 included the Albany Democrat-Herald, The (Bend) Bulletin, Corvallis Gazette-Times, The Daily Astorian, The Dalles Daily Chronicle, (Pendleton) East Oregonian, (McMinnville) News-Register, The (Roseburg) News-Review, Springfield News and The (Salem) Statesman Journal.