New Paltz Student Wins Selective Journalism Internship

NEW PALTZ — SUNY New Paltz journalism student Tracy Vanstaalduinen has been awarded a Dow Jones Newspaper Fund 12-week summer internship in Plattsburgh, N.Y. She will perform writing, editing and page design for the daily newspaper Plattsburgh Press-Republican, which has a circulation of 23,000 covering the northeastern Clinton, Essex and Franklin counties.

The New Paltz senior is one of 120 students selected from 700 applicants wishing to take part in this paid internship, founded in 1985 by editors of The Wall Street Journal seeking to improve the quality of journalism education and the pool of applicants for jobs in the newspaper business.

Shelly Wright, a lecturer in the Communication and Media Department at New Paltz, said, “It was clear to me the first time I had Tracy in class that she is a talented writer and that she has a keen eye for design.” She added, “The Dow Jones internship is very selective, so the fact that Tracy was chosen speaks well not only of her but of the Journalism Program [at New Paltz].”

The 23-year-old Newark, N.Y. native will travel to Plattsburgh following two weeks of training which begins June 1 at Temple University in Philadelphia.

Vanstaalduinen gained previous experience working as an intern on the health and social section of the Times Herald-Record in Middletown, and as a copy editor and staff writer for the New Paltz campus newspaper, The Oracle.

As for her goals beyond the internship, Vanstaalduinen said, “I’d like to do editing, and I want to travel and write and find a job that incorporates the two.”