3/8/01

Theresa Swope

AU JOURNALISM STUDENT LANDS WALL STREET JOURNAL INTERNSHIP

AUBURN Andrew Reese, an Auburn University journalism student from Montgomery, has won a prestigious internship with The Wall Street Journal the first for an AU student.

Reese will begin his internship in June, after a mandatory two-week training course in at Temple University.

To be considered for The Journal's internship, Reese first had to complete the Dow Jones Editing Test. Hal Foster, head of the AU Department of Journalism, says only about 10 percent of students tested nationally pass the exam.

"It's one thing to pass, but to score so high that The Wall Street Journal wants you means he scored in the top 1 percent nationally," Foster said.

The Dow Jones News Fund, which funds the internship, offers internships at other top newspapers such as The New York Times. Linda Waller, deputy director of the News Fund, said 455 students nationwide applied for internships but only 230 did well enough to be considered. Out of those, 140 were accepted.

"We don't just go by the test results, though," Waller said, adding that applicants are also judged on practical experience, classes they have taken and an essay they must write as part of their application.

"It's kind of like a journalistic biography. They have to tell us what makes them a good candidate for the internship," she said. "And grades count for something too."

The decision as to which candidates will go to which papers is made by the individual internship program directors at participating papers, Waller said.

"The directors come in around December and get the list of 230 (who passed the editing test) and start calling," she said. "It's a matter of matching, the individual director sees where a particular student's talents lie."

After taking the test in mid-November, it was only about a month before Reese received a call informing him that he had been selected as an intern for The Wall Street Journal.

"I was about to start work at the O-A (Opelika-Auburn News) and I had to be there at 3 (p.m.) - they called me at 2:30," said Reese, who has never been to New York.. "I had 30 minutes to make a decision."

Reese said he first called his father to make sure his parents could help pay the cost of living in New York, then he called his then-new boss at the Opelika-Auburn News to seek his opinion, followed by a call to the Journalism Department.

"I like to have several opinions before I make a decision," Reese said. "Auburn is such a friendly place and the relationships are such that if you want to call someone up and ask them for last-minute advice, you can.

"You're only as good as the people who are around you. I happen to be around folks here at The (Auburn) Plainsman and the Journalism Department who push you to succeed."

mar01:AU-wsj

CONTACT: Foster, 844-4607; Reese, 826-6672.