WIP - So much more than an internship

If we were to take a quick straw poll of our Class of 2008, asking each what the primary reason they applied to the Program was for, I'm sure the words 'high-profile internships' may underpin each answer. Undoubtedly it is the biggest draw, but really it has little to do with the biggest sell of this Program.
After our first week within such placements, I believe we can all grasp the notion that WIP is a bit more significant. It baffles me to think where the last two weeks have gone. Where I can account for the time and have loads of photos and memories to prove it, it still feels so recent that we were applying, then getting an interview, then sorting out a visa, then making sure we could get business cards, then ensuring we would all get the right bus to the airport, and walking into the terminal in that blistering heat.
We have been treated as VIP's for the first week, and then dispersed the second. Whilst I can appreciate how much I have enjoyed my first week with the BBC, we are quite unanimous in thinking it was a shame to split apart for a few days, even though we've all known each other for barely a fortnight as it is!
On Monday, first and foremost it is only right to acknowledge our introduction to SAWIP, several South African students, who are integrated into and affiliated with our group for much of the summer. From brief conversations all seem really friendly, although I am not too sure I would be after the nightmare 30-hour flight and travel complications that they had to endure just to be here. It is fascinating that WIP aims to bring students from across the diversity of Ireland, whereas we too can learn from the experiences of another such historically divided land.

As Tuesday arrived, and as I mentioned, it was strange to feel we were going our separate ways for the first real time.
I do appreciate the time that members of staff have afforded to me in the Bureau, all of which I do feel have set me well on the learning curve at such an early stage. I have experience using Final Cut Pro, the film editing software, but to be allowed to sit alongside some of the finest editors and watch them shows the benchmarks and standard I need to look toward. Richard Lister pointing me through a report he filed on rising food prices, seeing Matt Frei presenting World News America, Gavin Hewitt affording me half an hour of his time for an interview (which I shall publish shortly), and being treated more as an employee than what a stereotypical intern may be seen as, is really quite fantastic.
While most of our WIP'ers will be working on projects, or have set agenda's, it's not really like that at all with the BBC. If a story comes through, or a press conference is called, everyone will be mobilised accordingly. The media is about reporting the present impartially as opposed to working on a project which has a set goal. It is an incredible internship in this respect, for I genuinely have little idea what may come through the office on any given day, or if and when a major story could break. Being on the news desk it does mean times when very little happens and others were people will be frantically sorting things out.
With respect to the BBC I don't want to say too much about individual stories or their employees, but only to thank them for treating me professionally and being very encouraging. They too were no doubt in my position when starting out, so it's good to see they can appreciate I wish to gain as much experience as possible.

Just have to conclude by saying thanks to Gary, Alan and Sarah for a great day on Saturday; seeing around the Washington Monument, the Natural History Museum, the National Archives and the National Air and Space Museum. As a day with nothing planned to spend it looking through the original U.S. Constitution, Declaration of Independence, the Bill or Rights and such documents in the Archives was quite special.


I'm still convinced that stealing them is do-able. This is where my Belfast nature comes out as I look at them thinking - 'huh, wonder what they'd fetch on eBay', rather than, 'flip, these bits of paper are actually quite important'. I'll get to work on it... and also hope the F.B.I. don't read this blog too often. Surely they were flagging security up when they seen an Irish lad wearing a Linfield top enter the building.
I'm still shocked that the Magna Carta was thrown to the side of the room and being ignored. Surely it was more significant than the rest of those documents put together... Little bit of American symbolic payback to their former owners perhaps......?
(*I'll leave it there before getting too controversial...!!*)