Oklahoman interns NewsOK.com Blogging Community

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — In the first business trip of my life, I’m writing you from the great Kansas City, Mo., which is the site of this year’s Big 12 football media days. The experience is beyond great, getting to meet and greet with the top athletes in the conference has been unlike anything else. Monday, I had a one-on-one interview with Heisman Trophy finalist Chase Daniel from MU. My hand even made it into this photo of K-State quarterback Josh Freeman (I’m so proud).

My main job here is talk to every player (which is about 35) about things in their life outside of football. I’m asking questions about their motivation, their family, their hometown and working their quotes into a segment called “Welcome to My World” in the paper. I’m also writing briefs and helping out wherever I can.

But perhaps the best experience has been watching other reporters at work. Some of the best writers in the country are here, including reporters from ESPN.com, The Dallas Morning News and The New York Times. Not to mention following our own reporters–Berry Tramel, Jake Trotter and Scott Wright–around like an annoying little brother. Just trying to soak it all in guys.

Oh, and, I must say, the only downside to this trip has been the extensive intake of food. I’m guaranteed to weigh about 10 pounds more than when I arrived. Fried chicken, pasta galore and more than my fair share of cinnamon rolls have doomed me to a wider waste.

– Mike Jeffries, Sports

Since this was our last weekend as Oklahoman interns, it was a chance for many of us to make some lasting memories with the friends we’ve made this summer.

Friday night was a night out at the Oklahoma Redhawks game - courtesy of OPUBCO/The Oklahoman, which provided us with free suite tickets and an all-you-can-eat promotion pass (Thank you, OPUBCO!).

Some interns brought family members or friends to share the night with, while the rest of us made use of each other’s company to share in America’s past-time. But either way, good times were had by all!

Ironically, rather than watching the ballgame, many of us spent the night chatting together with the other Oklahoman employees who joined us: Joe Hight (director of information and development), Patti Shubert (executive assistant) and Jim Beckel (photographer).

I’m sure we provided them with some added entertainment with our intern cameraderie and antics — and maybe a little terror too, in Jason’s case…

The evening passed much too quickly, and before we knew it, the ballgame ended. Even though the Redhawks lost at the bitter end, the night still closed with a bang…

 Then on Saturday, a few of us met up again for an ol’ fashioned board-game night.

Jason and I faced off in a game of Scrabble - since I wasn’t fully convinced of his mastery over the game. He soon put my doubts to shame as he won with more than twice the score of mine. That put me in my place.

When Amy, Jenn and Dontay joined us, we switched to Scattergories, which led to much laughter as we began to question the worth of each other’s answers during the numerous rounds we played.

Some of the best moments?

– Dontay fast becoming the underdog and likely winning more rounds than all of us.

– Amy calling me out on “flakes” actually being “snowflakes,” so I couldn’t use it as an answer for “F” under “Things that are cold.

– Jason and I having some kind of telekinetic link and coming up with the exact same obscure answers as one another.

– Jenn being constantly distracted by my playful kitten and coming up with random answers.

So, as you might tell, it was an exciting and fun-filled weekend with some great friends. It’s amazing how fast you can get used to being around the same friends all the time, and before you know it - that time is up.

One more week of memories, my friends… Let’s make ‘em worth it.

~ Kristen M. Daum, City Desk intern at The Oklahoman.

The crowd at last night’s Redhawks game in Bricktown got a little more entertainment than they might have expected.

Among the ballplay, hotdogs and other traditions of America’s past-time were some performers of overnight pop-culture fame: The ZOOperstars.

The ZOOperstars were featured on NBC’s “America’s Got Talent,” showing off their acrobatic hilarities to a national television audience.

But on Friday, the ZOOperstar performers entertained the few thousand baseball fans gathering in downtown Oklahoma City!!

Here’s a glimpse of what the crowd was able to see in Bricktown Ballpark:

~ Kristen M. Daum, City Desk intern at The Oklahoman.

Stay tuned for more blog updates this weekend
about The Oklahoman interns’ night out at Friday’s Redhawks game!

Hello, Readers:

Check out NewsOK’s podcast page to hear the interns reflect on their past six weeks at The Oklahoman!

— Kristen, Adrielle and Nathan, on interning for the City and Business desks and the Data team.

— Monica and Hailey, on interning for Metro and State.

— Mike and Dontay, on interning for Sports.

And now, we’ve got less than two weeks left — Who would believe two months could go by so fast?

~ Kristen M. Daum, City Desk intern at The Oklahoman.

Each month in The Oklahoman’s News and Information Center, ”Best of the Month” honors are awarded to the top achievements in news-gathering, reporting or presentation. In June’s “Best of the Month,” members of the 2008 Intern Class were selected for several accomplishments!! 

Here’s what Joe Hight, The Oklahoman’s director of information and development, said about this month’s intern winners:

BEST INTERN ACHIEVEMENT: (an annual category for June/July)

— Jennifer Adams (Graphics) and Nathan Curby (Data), for their work to create an interactive map of all public golf courses in the metro area for the “know it: Golf.”

— Hailey Branson (State), for her 16 stories - including five for Page 1A.

Finalists: Amy Rymer (Photo), Kristen M. Daum (City),

Jason Singer (Sports/Metro) and Mike Jeffries (Sports).

SPECIAL RECOGNITION:

— Hailey Branson, Johnny Johnson, Sheila Stogsdill, Ron Jackson, Julie Bisbee, John Sutter and Henry Dolive, for their online and print coverage of the tragic deaths of two girls in Weleetka.

— The City desk (including Kristen M. Daum and Brian Kimball), Metro, Photo, State and Video departments, online editors, Paul Monies, Steve Maupin and the Data Team deserve special recognition for their work on the election filing period. This year, the work included providing candidate information for the new ElectOK.com.

— The Intern Class of 2008 deserves special recognition for its efforts to write the “Intern Blog” and then promote it. The blog rose to No. 1 or 2 during certain days in June and was No. 6 overall on NewsOK for the month.

Congratulations on your achievements, fellow interns!!

Let’s keep the quality journalism flowing!

~ Kristen M. Daum, City Desk Intern at The Oklahoman.

For an undisclosed, highly classified reason… Riddle Wizard Jason Singer must delay today’s brain-teaser till 11 a.m.

Stay tuned.

~ Kristen M. Daum, City Desk intern at The Oklahoman.

I encourage you all to take a look at today’s Front Page (and every day’s newspaper, for that matter, because it keeps us employed! ).

But today is special for our intern class - because ALL of the main content on Page A1 was produced by interns: From Jen Adams’ killer centerpiece graphic (with accompanying online interactive Flash presentation) to Brian Kimball’s two articles.

It’s certainly not the first time one of us interns has made Page One - but I do believe it’s the first time our class has covered every inch of it!

Congrats, Team Intern!!!

We’ve been doing some awesome work this summer - let’s make the last few weeks really spectacular!

 ~ Kristen M. Daum, City Desk intern at The Oklahoman.

In short: Last week was awesome. 

My workload was football camp heavy, as I covered Adrian Peterson’s camp in Norman and Wes Welker’s camp at Heritage Hall. Both were great experiences. Thursday, at Peterson’s camp, The Oklahoman was the only media outlet there (that I know of…), and so access was completely unique. I literally got to follow “A.D.” around all day. For a big NFL fan, it was pretty special.

On another front, the coaching sessions here at The Oklahoman are proving to be beneficial. Stan Ketterer, an associate professor at Oklahoma State, has been focusing on color writing with me. I’m beginning to really understand the difference between ‘telling’ the reader and ’showing’ the reader. The lessons in color should really come in handy this week, when I’m working on a story about a 90-something-year-old woman who is a huge mixed martial arts fan (cage fighting to be blunt.) Should be exciting!

I honestly can’t believe this internship is already half over. Four weeks have blown by, but I’m looking foward to improving my scope as a writer and reporter in the next few weeks instead of being so worried about “fitting in” to a very established newsroom.

Until next time,

 Mike Jeffries, Sports Intern

Wednesday, I got the opportunity to do one of the coolest things I’ve done as a sports journalist.

I tagged along with Oklahoma U. beat writer Scott Wright to interview OU men’s basketball coach Jeff Capel. Capel talked only briefly about his team and the summer camps he and his coaches were running. He wanted to talk about politics. About how his players and the younger generation take voting for granted. About Barack Obama and his accomplishments as the first black presidential nominee of a major party. About how his father and grandfather fought for civil rights in South Carolina and how they got spit on and laughed at and abused.

It was a pretty amazing thing to hear him talking about such things, and as an avid MU Tigers supporter, I almost became an OU basketball fan… Mostly, I feel lucky to have had the opportunity to meet him (and sit in one of those huge leather chairs he had in a very plush office!)

Mike Jeffries, Sports Intern

Just finished up my first podcast here at OPUBCO with fellow interns Dontay Allen and Jason Singer. It was, needless to say, awesome!

I’m sure I sounded quite awkward, but getting to record audio was something I’ve never done before. We talked about Lakers/Celtics, Tiger Woods and the U.S. Open, and I even got to pretend like I was Ken Griffey, Jr.!

You can check out the all-intern press row podcast beginning Wednesday morning at newsok.com or by visiting iTunes. HOW COOL IS THAT?!

-Mike Jeffries, Sports Intern