E131: Rewind - Be the Best mentor

Join Rebecca Snyder as she hosts Alexander Pyles, the Associate Dean at the University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism. Pyles, who also serves as the mentor coordinator for the MDDC internship program, shares invaluable insights on how to excel as a mentor for young journalists. Whether you're involved with the MDDC program or guiding interns and early-career journalists in other contexts, this episode offers practical tips and heartwarming anecdotes on fostering reciprocal and meaningful mentorship relationships. Tune in to discover how to inspire and nurture the next generation of journalism leaders while enriching your own professional journey.

Transcript

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Welcome everyone. I am Rebecca Snyder with the Maryland Delaware DC Press Association. And we are delighted today to have Alex Piles, who's the Associate Dean at the University of Maryland, Philip Merrill College of Journalism. Always such a mouthful. He is here today as in his unofficial or as official MDDC capacity. as the mentor coordinator for the MDDC internship program. So today we're gonna talk about tips to be the best mentor you can be. So when we mentor, I feel like everyone has something to give and something to learn in any relationship. And so Alex is gonna share more with us on how to sort of awaken the journalism instincts and nurture these young journalists through the summer program. And this is applicable not only for the MDDC interns, but also any intern or early in career journalists that you might find in your orbit. So welcome, and I'll turn it over to you Alex. Thank you, Rebecca. Thank you all for being here today. And thank you for agreeing to mentor these young journalists this summer, whether you're a part of the MDDC program or you're not. This is a really important program that I participated in for the last few years. And it means a lot to me and it means a lot to these young journalists who are really looking for help getting started in an industry, a profession that is always changing, right? And we have a lot that we can help them with through our experience. So I appreciate you taking the time. And what I'm gonna do is go through a couple of tips. that have been shared with me over the years and have been shared specifically with me by the original coordinator of this mentorship program, Adrian Flynn. And what I hope that we can do is here and there stop for you to share some of your own experiences working with young journalists. Because I know just about everyone on the call has already done this in some former fashion. So, can everyone? see that. Yes. All right. Great. OK. So I like this quote. It's from, again, Adrian Flynn put together the bulk of this presentation. And I added a little bit of my own flavor here and there. But she started here with this quote from Russell Brand. And I think this is a really important thing to. to remember, right? And in a lot of cases this summer, the students haven't selected their mentor, but you have been matched with them based on your experience and based on your interest on helping these young journalists. So it's very important at the start of this relationship, and hopefully many of you in the program have already met with your students. If not, we'll talk about some things that you might want to discuss with them very early on here. But hopefully you have had a conversation that has started to figure out exactly what it is that the student is hoping to get from the relationship. But it's also really important that you're getting something from the relationship too. This should be something where it's very reciprocal, right? And we'll get into that a little bit more. You know, the secret of volunteering as a mentor is that, you know, in my experience, and I think, you know, many of your experiences, you know, that it's, it's something that really, you, you, receive as much as you're giving, right? you know, I've said for a lot of years, I've taught at the university of Maryland for the last 13 years. and, even that many years ago, I started coming home and thinking, wow, you know, those students. they really got me thinking in a way that I haven't thought before. Me as a professional journalist, working in the newsroom every day, these students who are excited about the profession, excited about getting started with the work, they just think in different ways. They live different lives. They've had different experiences. They ask different questions. So that has always been really fun for me. And I hope that you'll get some of that in your mentorship relationship as well. You know, of course, we have lots of knowledge and hopefully wisdom to share with these students, but it's going to be a much more meaningful relationship for you if you can try to take something from these young people as well. It's very important, and hopefully this is the case in all of your matches. And if you've met with your mentors, your protege, hopefully, you've started to get a grasp of this. But it can be very helpful in these kinds of relationships if you have some things in common. So whether that is you have a job or have held a job that the student aspires to, whether you come from similar backgrounds, whether you're from the same place. These aren't things that have to happen in a successful mentorship relationship. but they are things that can happen, right? That can be helpful. This can be awkward at the start, right? We're matched, you know, at the start of this program, at the start of the summer, and we're asked to work together to help these young people improve, help them get better, help them get to where they ought to be. And it helps to be able to have some sort of starting block, some sort of common starting block. So... I would encourage you, if you haven't already had that kind of conversation with whoever you're mentoring this summer, see what things you do have in common, right? You don't have to get extremely personal. In fact, I would caution you against that and we'll talk more about that later. But it's okay to ask, what are their aspirations? What do they really wanna do? Where are they from, right? What in their background might you share with them that can allow you to bond maybe a little bit more quickly? and to be more successful. When I participated in this program a few years ago as a mentor, I was fortunate to be paired with a young journalist who was working in Baltimore where I worked at the Baltimore Sun and the Daily Record and elsewhere. So I knew the city. I knew the kinds of things the journalist was covering. They're also very interested in sports. And I was very interested in sports. And we were able to bond over that. Right? So it gave us things to talk about right off the bat. And you know, the other thing is we really want to be mindful of the amount of time we're spending with our mentors. I'll get into a little bit more of what an ideal situation looks like here, but keep in mind these are young journalists, right? A lot of them are probably working on breaking news desks or emerging news desks, right? Or they're being given the experience to jump into assignments often at the last minute. Urgency is the nature of news, right? So they might need to cancel a meeting with you. You might need to cancel a meeting with them, right? We're all news professionals here. That's okay, that's understood. That's gonna be part of the process. What's important is, that we'd be flexible with each other, and that if there has to be some kind of adjustment to a schedule or adjustment to a plan, we make sure that that ball doesn't get dropped, right? Because another thing that really matters in these relationships is some level of consistency and reliability, right? So what makes a really bad mentor relationship is sort of the opposite of some of the things that I've already said here, right? communication that is insufficient or inefficient or unclear can just be really extremely frustrating for a young journalist. Keep in mind that we are, that these, we're asking quite a bit of these student interns, right? A lot of them for the first time, for the first time at this level are working a full -time job in a newsroom. So they're getting a taste of that and they have an editor or editors. and they have you, thank you, a mentor. They have a writing coach, right? We're asking them to meet with a lot of people to talk about journalism, all in hopes of making them as good as they can be and making sure that they get the most out of this phenomenal opportunity to be in MDDC newsrooms for the summer. But we have to be really mindful of the... of that kind of time commitment, right? So when we do meet with them, not only do we want it to be consistent, but we want it to be worthwhile, right? We don't want these students to feel like they're going into all of these various meetings, having the same conversations that become repetitive and burdensome, right? If that's what these are feeling like, then we're not having effective meetings. And we want to make sure that this is a good use of everyone's time. You know, on the same note, you know, making time period is really important, right? If the student is going to tell if it seems like that they are not a priority for you, right? If you're not, you know, making sure that if you miss a meeting or you have to postpone a meeting that you're not immediately rescheduling, they want to see that you're committed to making them better. That's the thing that excites me about teaching, knowing that we can help make these young journalists better. And if you're interested in mentorship, I think that's probably what excites you too. So just try to keep that in mind as you're meeting with your students. I mentioned already that it's really helpful if there is some sort of similarity in your background or something that you can bond over initially. At the same time, You may meet with your intern right off the bat and say, this is problematic, right? We see the world in very different ways and we're not able to relate to each other in a productive way. You know, there's lots of value in learning to work with people who think differently from you and who you might not be friends with outside of the workplace. I don't know that that is the ideal situation for a mentor relationship. So I mentioned that here just to say that, If you are meeting with your intern and you're finding that this relationship isn't working for one reason or another, let's talk about that. Maybe I can help you brainstorm some ideas with your intern to break up the logjam. Or maybe we can look at other alternatives. But again, just remembering that this has to be a good relationship for both you and them. I don't want folks to go through the summer struggling. to communicate. Another thing that would make a bad mentorship relationship would be making judgments based on things that your intern is sharing with you or having a lack of empathy. And these can be really small things. Look, I work with young journalists every day. And that's one of the parts of my job that I really love the most. They think differently than we do. They think differently than folks who have been in the profession. They're also entering a profession and a job market and a world very different than the ones that we entered into in journalism. So just because our experience was one thing coming up or mid -career, it doesn't mean that that's gonna be their experience. We can share. those experiences with them to help them sort of navigate the current environment, to help them navigate the workplace. And I think there's absolutely value to teaching resilience and to teaching problem solving in these mental relationships. But I would also urge you to listen, to really listen to your protege, to your intern, and hear what they're saying. Just because something has always been done a certain way, doesn't mean that it's gonna continue happening that way and doesn't mean that it should continue happening that way. We really need these young journalists to be the next generation of leaders in newsrooms, right? They're off to a good start this summer. We need them to become the next leaders. And you might think about what do they need now so that we can get them past whatever struggle they might be having. So here's a quote from John Maxwell, but I think just hammers home the value of having regular meetings with these students, right? This is showing, giving your time is going to mean a whole lot to them. And I think about, when I go back and think about my career at newspapers and websites, the mentor relationships that I remember are the ones where I could tell that an editor was spending extra time with me, right? Which is really hard. We're busy people. We have deadlines. We're trying to do work urgently. But when there was time, an editor would take the time to sit with you and talk you through a story and... Not just the end, but at the beginning and throughout, but even at the end, you know, editing the story when we're trying to get it to publication. The editors who took the time to go through line by line with you while you sat there and watched, that's a good mentor relationship, right? That's a really good mentor relationship. And again, it's not something that can happen every day with every story. And I think most young journalists will understand that. But when we can take the time, to show that level of attention, it just, it means the world, right? It helps them grow far more than the opposite. So commit to developing this person and get to know them. So again, learn their story. And again, that doesn't necessarily have to be learn their whole personal history, but learn what they value. Learn what feeds them. What do they love about journalism? What do they want to accomplish in the profession? what really makes them want to get out of bed in the morning and go to work? I had a reporter say to me once that they get up every morning excited to go to work. And I kind of laughed. And I thought they were making a joke. But they weren't. They were excited because they had stories that they were passionate about. And yeah, they may have. to do some things that they weren't excited about, but those things that really fed them, they made sure that they carved out time to do. And that's why they were excited to come to work every day. I had a mentor once ask me, what is it that really feeds you? What makes you want to go to work? What makes you want to be creative? And once I figured out what that was, my life got a lot easier. I enjoyed work a lot more. And I made sure, you know, every day since to work toward opportunities to make that as big a part of my work life as possible. I think that's something that we can pass on to our protégés, to our interns. You know, really think hard. You know, getting the job isn't the objective, right? You know, getting the next job isn't the objective. What is it about those jobs? What do you like, right? knowing that that's not what you're going to do all of the time, what do you like and how can you carve out that time? I've already said make time for these folks, but also provide them with as many resources as you can. Right? So there will be a list of mentoring resources here at the end of this presentation that I'll share with you. But you have lots of journalism resources, I'm sure, that are just at your fingertips, whether it be a book, whether it be a really... interesting article that you read, whether it's a piece of journalism that you think was especially well done that's relevant to your intern, don't be afraid to give them little reading assignments, right? And set reasonable expectations about when they might take a look at these things, and then you too can discuss it at one of your meetings. That's totally reasonable, as long as you can both agree to it and come up with a reasonable timeline. And finally, I'll repeat again that you are among a team that's going to be working with this student, right? If you're an MDTC mentor this summer, they have editors, they have writing coaches, they may have other folks in their life who they, you know, teachers or someone else who they may depend on for guidance. I would urge you to find your place in that group. and maybe make it so that you're more of a cheerleader than the really harsh, the really realistic editor, we'll say, right? The person who's got to get the story out, right? The person who's got to make sure that this intern is productive, right? Not that we want to go unrealistically easy on them. That's not helpful. It's not preparing them for the world, but be their cheerleader. Let them understand. that you believe that they can do it. Find out what they're good at and encourage those things while at the same time, help them learn to grow into the things that maybe they're not as strong on. I have not finished this series, I gotta tell you, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel on Amazon Prime. So if this relationship goes south in some way, then just ignore this quote. Right, but I just started that. I know I'm getting to it very, very late. But I love this line from the main character, Midge, to her agent, Susie. You're going to have to tell me I'm good even when I'm not. I think that's one way that you could think about your mentor relationship with your student. Not that you should look at a bad story or a story that wasn't done the way that it really ought to have been done and say, great job, aces. but maybe find something that you thought was good. Maybe the reporting wasn't where you would like to see it, but they had an interesting lead. Maybe they didn't have the lead that you would have written, but they really interviewed the right people. Try to find something that can serve as a building block to helping these students become the best that they can be. So what can we do practically as we're meeting with our students? So my suggestion would be to start by setting some goals. And if you've already met with your student, I'd love to hear about what you've already done. But if you haven't already met or if you're having another meeting coming up soon and you haven't set goals already, I would encourage you to do that. And... this acronym SMART stands for Specific Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. We only have, if you're in this program, eight weeks with these students. So what can we realistically achieve in eight weeks? I had a protege once who, in these eight weeks, really wanted to determine whether they were interested in working in sports or news. So we made a plan. Right? They were in a newsroom where they had a little bit of flexibility. We made a plan so that they could pitch the kinds of stories that they wanted to do that would help them get exposure to the kinds of things that they were interested in covering, but weren't sure they wanted to commit to yet. And I don't think you have to enter this conversation saying, all right, we're going to set goals today. It's the goal setting meeting, right? Like that's not fun for anybody, I don't think. But just again, in getting to know the student that you're working with, set the goals based on those conversations. They'll tell you, if you just ask questions, like the good reporters that you are, they'll tell you what matters to them and what their goals should be. They won't realize they're doing it. It won't feel like work. And then that's where you can come in as the experienced mentor and say, yeah, this is something that we should shoot for this summer. Let's check in regularly on this. So some things to think about. What do they want to get out of the internship? Editors at their publications are going to have needs of their own. They're going to need to get a certain work product out of their intern, and that's fine. That's part of their reciprocal relationship. But what does the intern really want to get out of the relationship? What do they want to get out of the relationship with you? One thing that when this mentorship program started a few years ago that Adrienne Flynn mentioned, I think in the presentation was that something that they might need from you are just things that they're afraid to ask someone who they work with in their newsroom. I was immediately transported back to my first internship at the Baltimore Sun. where I was working with a sports editor who told me that they wanted a 12 inch store. I didn't know what that meant. I wasn't in a journalism program. I didn't know what an inch was. How many words is that? No idea what they were talking about. And I was scared to death to ask. I was brand new in the newsroom. I didn't want the first question that I had to ask my editor, what's an inch? I didn't want that to be the first question. That's the kind of question that your intern might ask you. What terminology do you know that's just in your brain from a long career in journalism that they don't? I don't know if Inch is what the question is going to be now, but maybe they don't know what a kicker is. Maybe they don't know what a nut graph is. I wouldn't have. Again, if they're not coming from a traditional journalism program, these are not things that they might have been trained to know. Right? So these are things that you could think about. But also, what else do they want to get out of the relationship? Right? Do they want a sounding board? Do they want you to read their stories and offer feedback in real time? I think that's a good idea, a good way to spend your meetings. Maybe they want job advice, right? How to apply for jobs, how to write a good cover letter. Where should they be looking for jobs? What kind of jobs are available that maybe they're overlooking that really fit their skill set well? Some of the most fun that I have working with young journalists, a lot of what I teach is digital design and audience engagement and social media strategy. And sometimes they get to me and they think, no, I don't know exactly what I want to do in journalism. I feel like I'm not the kind of reporter that I want to be or one that could be successful. It's not how I want to spend my time. Maybe I shouldn't be in journalism. And then I can show them a way that they can work in the profession that they clearly care about. That is a little bit different, right? That isn't being a traditional reporter. Maybe there's something like that with your intern, right? And that can, again, learning their background, spending time with them, working with them, asking them questions, it's gonna help you uncover that. What are the steps they can or need to take to get there? What's the timeline for success? And when you think about the goals, some of them can be, they should be attainable, right? Part of our acronym. But make them work a little bit too, right? This is a period in their career where they're starting out and you can really help them get off to a good start, push themselves, find out what they're capable of. Going back to teaching resilience a little bit, I met with, Bunch of first year students. Yesterday I'll meet with more tomorrow and more over the next several weeks as we welcome a new class at Merrill College. And one of the things I like to tell them is that we can do hard things, right? That's a very simple thing to tell a young journalist, but it can, if repeated enough, and if given the opportunity to succeed in these situations with scaffolding and support from mentors and editors, and coaches, they may learn over time that they can do hard things. And that's really important for professional development. So I would suggest the next time you meet with your intern, share some work product, right? Ask them to share theirs, read or review their work, let them read or review yours. And again, try to be encouraging, especially when you're looking at your work. As I was preparing this presentation, you get on Google and you type in, mentoring and all kinds of different things come up. And the favorite link that every website that has a content mill puts up is quotes, right? Like inspiring quotes about mentorship. And every single one of them had this quote from Steven Spielberg that I could not trace back to the origin. So who knows if he ever actually said it. But the sentiment I thought was really excellent. I'll paraphrase to say that, A good mentor doesn't turn their protege into them. They help them become the best that they can be. So just because someone didn't do it the way that you would have done it, is there some value in the way that they did do it? Can you help them achieve the best version of themselves? Share your failures, your failures, and talk about their failures. Failure is good. I think failure is a really important part of teaching. It's not something to be feared, but these are all really high -flying students, young journalists who you're going to be working with, right? They probably have had great grades their entire life. They have this great internship. They're very highly successful. And if they fail in the newsroom, it's going to feel pretty bad. Share a time that you failed, right? If you haven't failed, call me. I'll share all the times that I failed today. Not a big deal. Let's normalize talking about that so that we can help these students learn as much as possible. Suggest any readings or videos or presentations that have helped you in the past, and also just celebrate and if possible, reward the success of your student. That doesn't have to be anything really huge, right? If you're on social media and the student wrote a story that you think is really good, you know, worth sharing, share it with your network. Let them know that you did it. It'll mean the world to them, right? Just to know that you're noticing and you feel like it's worth sharing with others. All right. So sorry, I'm a nerd. But this quote, I think, sums up a lot of how I feel about teaching. Failure is a great teacher, right? We learn from the good kind of failure. So a couple of logistics and then what I hope that we can do is open up and talk about experiences that you've already had with your student this summer or in the past. I'm giving this presentation, but everyone here is a highly experienced journalist and experienced mentor. I think we can probably learn from each other. So I wanna make sure that we spend. the last part of this, hearing from you any tips that you can provide from your experience doing this. But generally, I expect that most of the meetings that you have with your mentor will be on the phone or on Zoom or something like that. If you can meet in person, that's wonderful. Maybe it's just not gonna work out and that's okay. But... I do think we lose something if we're not able to meet in person at least a couple of times. But again, whatever time that you can give is fantastic. If you do meet in person, please do so in a public place. Go to a restaurant, go to a newsroom. If you do go to your newsroom or offer a tour, keep it to public hours. Protect yourself, protect your intern. Please just... Keep that in mind, don't invite them over to your home. Nothing like that. Let's keep this public and just follow your own moral compass there. Don't overshare with your intern. While I want you to get a lot out of this relationship, if you're having a particularly tough time in your own life, that's not a conversation to have with your... with your protege, right? That said, they may overshare with you, right? That just might be something that they decide to do if you have a strong relationship. And my advice there would just to be very sympathetic. But if anything comes up that concerns you, abuse, threatening or self -harming behavior, anything like that at all, please report it right away. And if you don't know who to report to or whether something is something that needs to be reported, call me. I'll make sure that you all have my contact information. You should have my email, but I'll make sure you have my phone number as well if you're working with an MDTC intern this summer. These are things that come up from time to time at the university, so I'm glad to point you to resources. Here's a little bit of a, well, not a change, but in understanding that these interns are having to meet with an editor or editors and with a coach and with a mentor, it can be hard to do that weekly. If you can meet with your intern weekly, that's wonderful. Do it. if it works for both of your schedules, but at least every other week, right? Over the eight weeks of their MD, DC internship, have a meaningful conversation with them, right? If you wanna check in in between then, email, text, if you wanna do that, that's good. And then a meaningful conversation every other week, that's probably fair. If you can meet with them more often and they wanna meet with you more often, then. I'm not trying to discourage that. I'm also just trying to be realistic about the demands on their time and the demands on your time. Again, I want these meetings to be helpful and meaningful, not a burden. Set and discuss goals with them at your next meeting if you haven't already. Rebecca has sent out numerous calendar invitations this summer for Brown Bag events. I think it's at least once a month. you know, encourage your interns to go to those. I think you're all invited to them as well. You know, just to allow these students to continue learning throughout the summer outside of their newsroom where they're doing a lot of learning. Check in with me about once a month. So after this meeting today, we'll schedule our first check -in if you're working with an MDDC intern. Just want to make sure everything's going okay. You can let me know about anything that's happening that you don't want to share with the whole group today. And we'll check in once a month at minimum just to make sure things are going on. Of course, if you need to reach me in between those times, that's no problem at all. And then at the end of the program, Rebecca will send a survey to ask you how things worked. And one of the reasons why I'm saying here at the top, if you can't meet with your intern every week, we understand. It's because of results that came back in that survey. We understood from interns that, you know, boy, there's a lot of people to meet with and I had trouble fitting it all in. Not everyone's gonna feel that way, but just keep in mind, be mindful of that situation. So I'm going to close out this presentation and I hope that we can just have a little discussion. Those of you who have had interns before, Jack, I know that you have had an intern before and I know you have as well. Is there anything that you can share from your experiences? And Kamau, I'm sorry, I don't know that you've been part of this program before, but if you have, I apologize. And Jim, of course, if there's anything that you wanna share from working with interns. Any tips for folks, anything that you did that you wish that you had done differently one time around or anything that you shared that you thought an intern really resonated with that intern and was helpful to them in the process. Alex, I'll jump in here. I had internships when I owned a newspaper back in Iowa. And at the end of each internship, I had the interns write an essay, you know, what did you learn in this internship? You know, how did it work for you? And one of the interns I had wrote that she felt like an imposter all the way through the internship. that somehow she had fooled me into hiring her. And she noted in there that throughout the internship, I gave her positive reinforcement, but she still felt like an imposter throughout the whole thing. And I think that's something that editors really need to keep in mind is that these are really young. This is probably their first job in a newsroom. And there's a feeling in a lot of them that... they don't deserve to be there and somehow they have gotten in and they just, they're skating by, you know, and this was a good intern too. Yeah. So if an intern said that to me, Jim, and maybe you don't feel this way, I would say, I feel like I'm an imposter too. Right? Cause I feel like I hear that more and more and more from. very successful people and of course students. So, you know, that's where Sharon, a little bit of yourself as early as you can, that might really be helpful. You know, set them at ease a little bit. Now, of course, if you don't feel that way, then don't say that, but this is where you can point out the things when possible. You said that this was a really good intern. Look at each story and say, this was done really well, right? Thanks for sharing that. Jack, did you want to say something? I think the most helpful thing on my end is frankly has been prompts that Adrian provided last year, the year before. I think you mentioned the network that these people have behind them provided by NVC. That's great. And I think sometimes the thing that I tried to keep in mind going into these is I didn't want to be parroting things that others had said or feel like I'm just another person trying to tell them what to do. So I... I noticed that trying to keep it very conversational, really allowing them to guide the conversations and then using those prompts, I think took the conversation in really, really productive ways. I'm mentoring Sasha, she actually started like two weeks ago. And I found myself going back to those old prompts to be able to facilitate conversation. That's been really helpful. Do you remember, was there a particular prompt that you thought was really helpful, Jack? Here, I'm looking at my notes just to see the... I'll just look at the one we did last week. Ummm... Well, so the one we did last week was in what ways can your career path serve as a model for your mentee? Ask where your mentee thinks they want to be professional in the next year or five years. That usually gets some pretty good conversation going. Just considering I'm not too far off from where these interns are. I mean, I was in the program four years ago or so, so I can, and I entered the field at a time that, is pretty similar to where they're going in. So I can identify with some of the challenges and fears that they have. And then you mentioned this during the presentation too, but sharing failures always really helped connect, really helped establish a connection between me and the mentor. I think showing that vulnerability allows for a lot of ease and conversation. And it even sometimes feels good when you share a failure and you're, Manty's like, that makes sense. I understand where you're coming from being able to commiserate together. But so those two prompts that the one I did last weekend and that the failure one, I think kind of stick out, but there were Adrian shared, I think eight, it was like one for each of the eight weeks. It's great. I will, I'll see if I have those and I'll share with the whole group. Okay. Anything else that anyone wants to add, any tip based on their experience working with interns? I was going to mention your experience last year where you provided such practical support. I think your intern last year was uncomfortable or didn't know Baltimore really well. So you took her on a driving tour and used your natural knowledge that was like, whatever. took her around and I'm sure that helped her almost immediately feel more comfortable with where she was and what she was doing. Yeah, I mean, I actually I don't remember if I actually physically took her on a driving tour, but I told her any number of things that I thought would interest her in kind of knowing the town, even though she went to College Park, she hadn't really come to Baltimore much or be part of of the city. I mean, the only the only thing I guess one thing that. I would I recall from last year was, you know. My intern last year was pretty savvy to the ways of a newsroom because of working at the Diamondback and had been pretty well scripted at the Sun in terms of what they were having her do. And I just tried to encourage her. And that was meaningful work. And she bonded with a slightly older... you know, for lack of a better word, I think it was sort of like the person wasn't exactly a new hire, but was like almost like a journalism fellow in the newsroom. And they both had similar interests. And that seemed to be a very instructive relationship for her. And I just tried to encourage her, well, if there is another kind of story, you know, that you want to do, try and have that conversation with the editor. Now I met, I had my intern, yesterday I felt like a mom. I had her, I had her just check in at the end of the day. So I knew her first day went well, or how did the first day went well? You know, I, I, I neglected to ask for the, for the shot of her in the newsroom, but maybe I'll get one of those later. But, and I think it was good. I, she was very upbeat, you know, she'd been concerned about. What was the dress? What was the attire for the first day and blah, blah, you know? And I think... I think the thing that a little bit, because my intern I think is a little green, for lack of a better way to describe it, you know, not sort of in that helicopter mom role, tell her too much, you know, she gave me the idea of what her first assignment was, and I just tried to offer some suggestions without, you know, basically saying this is how I would do it, right? you know, just gave her some options if so-and -so isn't available, look here, check there. Maybe this person can find someone else for you to get it, you know, to introduce you to the community. So, but, so first day, so far so good. And I hope that I'll check in with her by the end of the week just to make sure she's, you know, if she hasn't gotten her foot into the story yet. how I might be able to help her. And I want to, she has a writing coach, I guess we all do, do they all do? Yeah. So one thing on my list today is to just check in with Diana and just say, hey, here's what happened. Here's my conversation with her yesterday. So we stay on the same page. That's so great. You know, so fingers crossed. That's so great. And I'm sure it meant the world to the intern that you were checking at the end of the day, right? You're in a very different role. All of you are in a very different role. We were working with folks, right? You're not in the newsroom. You're not scary. Hopefully you're not scary. You're like a trusted advisor. So that's really great that you're already building that kind of relationship. Yeah. So anyway. Yeah, I'd like to see those prompts too. Just for the heck of it, if you can find them, I'd appreciate it. Just... I don't know if I was in that. I don't think I was engaged in this role prior to this. So anyway, but this has been really helpful. I have to drop off now, but I just wanted to say your calm sort of assurance is very nice to have in this conversation, even for this old girl. So thank you so much. And I'm sure I'll be in touch if I need to. check in with you about anything specific. Absolutely. That sounds great. Okay. Great. All right. Well, thank you all so much for spending some time with us today. And I am really looking forward to seeing all of our interns throughout the MDDC universe really gain stronger skills, provide real value and fabulous clips and kind of launch their journalism careers in this area. You guys are a big part of that. So thank you all for. for sharing your time and expertise and sharing your knowledge. So thank you.