FSU Communication boasts internships

By Amy Welch

Managing Editor, Florida State Times

Florida State is keeping good company these days. It's ranked with the likes of New York University, the University of California at Los Angeles and other top-notch institutions in placing communication students in coveted broadcast internships.

The latest edition of the Gourman Report, a rating of American and some international undergraduate programs, placed FSU's communication department 10th in the country. The radio and television department was rated sixth.

Broadcast communication students at FSU are netting prized internships at CNN, NBC, CBS, MTV, the Late Show with David Letterman, the Rosie O'Donnell Show. And the list goes on.

The reason?

It's whom you know, and who knows you. And at FSU, the one in the know is professor of communication, Chuck Sawyer.

Since 1989, Sawyer, an adviser to broadcast communication/production undergraduates, has been building a list of television and radio companies that hire communication students to do their dirty work - intern.

Sawyer's list has grown to a collection of about 200 names of employers and FSU grads.

When a student is about to graduate, Sawyer refers to his book and, presto, the student may spend a semester in Atlanta, New York or California.

"Colleagues from other schools are jealous as hell," Sawyer said. "They say, 'You have this type of equipment?'"

FSU's reputation is strengthened by Seminole Productions, a company run by communication professors and students.

Apparently the development is working. Sarah Horne got an internship at the Rosie O'Donnell show last spring before she graduated. Although the job required more writing than filming, Horne hopes it will help her get a permanent job soon.

Horne got one of 15 intern spots available per semester at O'Donnell's show, she said.

"Most schools have one camera for every 100 students; FSU has one for every five," Horne said. "(FSU) was a challenging school in that you have to be creative."

Jane Tronier can testify to the hard work. Not only was there competition in the intern market, but also in her classes, she said.

Despite beginner's jitters, Tronier applied to CNN for her internship last May. She moved to Atlanta and is public relations coordinator for CNNSI, a new cable channel owned by CNN.

"People can really get internships that they wouldn't think they could," Tronier said. "I was so close to not applying and now I've found my job - what I'm going to do for the next 10 years."

Another intern, Mary Wharton, got an internship with VH1, and is now a producer there.

If the television industry thinks FSU students are good when they graduate, it might be because FSU makes sure they're good when they enter. The minimum grade point average to enter the communication school is a 2.8, but the competition is actually greater than that, Sawyer said.

Students can work at several FSU production studios like the Broadcast Center, University Communications, Seminole Productions, V-89 (FSU's student-run radio station), Channel 47 (FSU's student-run television station) and the Student Government movie channel.

"When they go out into the world they've already had their first internships," Sawyer said.

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