Crusader Staff Report
In two weeks, three aspiring future professional journalists will hit the streets and press conferences in Chicago as interns of the Chicago Crusader. They will work at the Chicago Crusader’s South Side office from July 1 to July 19.
It will be a challenging and inspiring time for Sharon Joy Washington, Tedarus Abrams and Elae C. Hill. The interns are among six college students at HBCU’s participating in Chevrolet’s fourth annual Discover the Unexpected Summer Journalism Internship Program. Washington, Abrams and Hill, will intern at the Washington Informer in the nation’s capital before they pack up and head to the Midwest for a life-changing road trip to the Chicago Crusader.
For more than two weeks on Chicago’s South Side, the three interns will serve as working journalists, researching and writing stories that will bring them in closer to the hard realities of people and neighborhoods in the city’s struggling West Woodlawn neighborhood. They will learn the art and significance of interviewing, investigating stories, writing headlines, captions and newspaper layout at the award-winning Chicago Crusader. They will also learn about Chicago’s rich Black history, its powerful Black achievers and how their historic accomplishments shaped the city, Black America and the nation.
The program will also provide the interns with a first-hand experience of working in a Black newsroom under challenging deadlines and professional work standards.
There will be time for the interns to experience Chicago’s exciting social and cultural scenes as the summer festivals, including Taste of Chicago and Taste of WVON prepare to whet the appetites of food lovers across the city.
“I’m excited for this opportunity to educate and inspire our young Black journalists of the future,” said Dorothy R. Leavell, publisher of the Chicago Crusader and Gary Crusader and Chairman of the National Newspapers Publishers Association (NNPA). “It’s important for our aspiring Black journalists to experience the real world of the Black Press as it fights on the front lines in documenting and advocating for the needs of Blacks everywhere. This is part of their education that cannot be taught in the classroom or from textbooks.”
This will be the first year the Crusader has participated in the summer program. Among the four Black newspapers participating in the program Chicago is the largest city the interns will cover.
