What an amazing summer.

My journey at USA Today came to a close on Aug. 3, but I will never forget the experience or the people. In my last week at USA Today, I pitched a story idea about doing an update on Aimee Copeland’s condition, the Georgia native who suffered from a flesh-eating disease. I wrote that story in 24 hours, and all of my stories appeared online and in the print newspaper. I got to interview her father, Andy Copeland, Executive Director of the National Necrotizing Fasciitis Foundation Jacqueline Roemmele, and a contestant on this season’s Bachelorette, Ryan Bowers.

It was so rewarding because after it appeared online and in print, I received an email from Aimee’s dad thanking me for writing the story and being compassionate and a reporter “who just gets it.” It means a lot of when a source can trust you with sensitive information about their family.

Then, the higher education editor asked me to write a back-to-school story on the day before my last. I worked on it all day, and turned in to him by the next morning. That story will appear in USA Today on Aug. 15.

The internship was truly remarkable, and I gained so much professional experience.

At the beginning of the summer, I made a goal that I would somehow convince the editors to let me write at least one story. I ended up with three clips, and one that is coming out next week. So, even if an internship doesn’t encourage you to explore other departments, there are no limits at a place as big as USA Today.

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07/21/12 — Accepting the Robert Novak Journalism Award

On Wednesday, July 18, I went to Washington DC to accept the prestigious Robert Novak Award. It was such a surreal experience. I will forever be so thankful to The Red & Black, The Institute on Political Journalism and The Fund for American Studies for recognizing my work.

The Robert Novak Collegiate Journalism Award

I woke up at 5 a.m. that day. After I put my heels in my purse and grabbed my keys, I was on my way to driving to the Metro station at about 6 a.m. The program started at 8:30 a.m., but I got to the city at around 7:15 a.m. A little background: I am terrified of speaking in front of huge crowds of people. Like most journalists, I’m not used to being in the spotlight. So I went to get coffee and calm my nerves. I drank it in about 40 seconds, and I wasn’t feeling nervous anymore, I was now feeling nauseous. So I called my boyfriend who had patiently listened to me worry about this speech for the last month. (If you’re reading this, I really, really appreciate it, and I can’t thank you enough!!) He told me to breathe and made me take like five breaths until I calmed down. Who thought that breathing would help? It definitely did.

After I stopped feeling like I would throw up, I headed to the National Press Club in DC where the ceremony was held. In the elevator, I took the heels out of my purse and changed them out with my flats. I got my name tag, and met the program director, Joe Starrs. He made me feel so welcomed, and he was just one of the nicest people ever.

The program began at about 8:30 a.m. I was the first speaker out of the three journalists getting recognized at the event. My heart was pounding, but when I got up at that podium, all the nerves disappeared. I found that it’s actually not so terrible to speak in front of 150 people if you know what you’re talking about (and if you remember to breathe). I talked about the stories that earned me this wonderful award, and it went well. I won for the following stories:

Alcohol in Athens: Underage citations, not arrests, more typical in counties outside Athens

Diversity scholarship dropped by Athletic Association for Adams’ raise (W/ Documents)

Regi-star: Fifth candidate appears months later for review, nabs registrar position (W/ Documents)

I got to meet some really great journalism students who were interning in DC for the summer. I even met Emily Miller of the Washington Times who won an award for investigative journalism. It was an amazing day. The Red & Black also wrote the sweetest article about the award, and I will forever love the R&B staff.

When I got on the Metro with my award (it was quite the sight haha), I kept looking at it in disbelief that it was my name on that plaque. I still remember when I was eight years old moving with my parents from Bulgaria to the US with literally nothing but two suitcases. That Green Card was our ticket to a better life and amazing opportunities. I’ve loved writing ever since I was little, and the fact that I just won a national journalism award for doing just that encourages me to do even more. Journalism takes patience, persistence and hard work — all skills I’ve learned from my parents. Moving across the world to a new place where you don’t know the language, the culture or the people, takes a ton of courage. So thank you mom and dad for teaching me nothing is out of reach. I wouldn’t be where I am today if everything was handed to me on a silver platter. Other people may help, but if you want something badly enough, you’ll bust your butt until you achieve it yourself.

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07/21/12 — On deadline

Last week was probably one of the most eventful weeks I’ve had at USA Today this summer.

On Monday, I continued working on a story about veterans with the higher education reporter. I sorted through 91 more documents and organized the information into an Excel spreadsheet. We were finally done! At 2 p.m. the same day, I gave a tour of the USA Today building to high school students who were Al Neuharth Free Spirit Scholars. They were really bright students who asked the USAT editors great questions. I can’t believe that only four years ago I was in their shoes, and I am now interning at USA Today. I still have to pinch myself to make sure I’m not dreaming.

On Tuesday morning, I picked up a USA Today only to see a front page tease to the article I helped with last week! It was on page 3A. What a wonderful way to start the morning. The article was about how some veterans felt the contracts they signed regarding the Army College Fund were misleading. The article, “Some vets feeling shorted by the Army College Fund,” turned out really well, and I am so thankful to reporter Mary Beth Marklein for the opportunity to help her with this important story.

On Wednesday, I went to Washington D.C. to accept the Robert Novak Award, but I will create a separate post for how incredible (and nerve-wracking) that day was.

On Thursday, I worked on creating a new album for the Corvette gallery. It will be published on Monday, so I don’t have the link yet but the theme is “Ready for takeoff.” Check the website for more on that!

Friday was just crazy. The tragic shooting at the Batman premiere in Colorado had happened at midnight that same night. When I got to work, I immediately began working on a Storify called “Deadly Colorado Shooting” to show how the incident unfolded on social media. I compiled tweets from people who were in the movie theater and others who were touched by the incident. It was mentally and emotionally draining, but I continued to follow it all day. The shooting suspect killed 12 and wounded 58 people at the Aurora movie theater. Barack Obama and Mitt Romney both cut short their campaigning out of respect for the families of the victims. Twitter was also buzzing with an outpour of support from people all across the states for the victims and their families.

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07/15/12 — Welcoming USA Today’s new Editor-in-Chief

“I want everyone to constantly feel challenged and wake up each morning and just worry about covering the news,” said David Callaway, USA Today’s new editor-in-chief, at a town hall meeting.

Callaway spoke to USAT employees at a town hall meeting last week, and discussed his vision for the newspaper. He placed heavy emphasis on covering the news and promised “more scoops, more news [and] more analysis.”

Attending the town hall was refreshing. Though newspapers are finding new ways to appeal to readers, Callaway said, “There’s no decline in the hunger for news.” And I agree. Regardless of what may happen to newspapers in the future and regardless of what they may look like, there will always be a need for fair and investigative journalism. Always.

Callaway and the new USAT publisher, Larry Kramer, also came to speak at an intern event. Callaway started out as a Gannett intern when he was beginning his journalistic career, and he is now the new EIC. Kramer founded MarketWatch and is now the new publisher. What can you take away from that? As long as the passion for journalism is there, anything is possible.

In other news, I helped work on a confidential assignment at Gannett, updated USA Today’s Pinterest page and I helped the higher education reporter with another story. I sorted through documents, did an interview and wrote a little bit. It was a wonderful week.

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07/08/12 — Corvettes, interns and Pinterest

I’ve stayed busy the last two weeks.

For one, a USA Today intern asked me to participate in helping develop a new USAT intern brand. The brand would allow  interested students to better understand what an internship at USA Today has to offer. As of now, there is a USA Today Intern Tumblr and a USAT Intern Twitter account. Interns are encouraged to post about their everyday duties at the office as well as experiences they’ve had during the internship. For instance, I wrote a blog post about getting to go inside the White House and what that experience meant to me.

I also got to write for PrettySouthern.com — a website about all things Southern. I wrote an entry about whether I think D.C. is a Southern city. After a month’s worth of observations, I found out that most people here also prefer Coke over Pepsi. You can find out for yourself if D.C is Southern here.

In the last two weeks, I worked on creating a Corvette gallery in honor of Corvette’s 59th birthday. Did I get enough reader photos? Let’s just say my inbox crashed. I’ve created two albums so far and there is another to follow in the next week. Check out the “Happy Birthday, Corvette” photo gallery and take part in the birthday celebration.

In other news, I’ve been helping revamp USA Today’s Pinterest page with new and interesting pins. Check back throughout next week for updates. I also helped pull out commentary from USA Today‘s social media accounts during Supreme Court’s health care ruling.

Wondering what I’ll be doing on this wonderful Sunday night? Watching Aaron Sorkin’s “The Newsroom,” of course.

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06/23/12 — The White House — from the other side of the fence

The last week at USA Today has been really eventful. For one, I got to go inside the White House and help report a story on Title IX’s 40th anniversary.

On Tuesday afternoon, I got an email from one of my supervisors at USA Today asking me if I wanted to shadow the higher education reporter and help her report a story from the White House. Um is that even a question? I jumped at the opportunity.

On the way to covering the Title IX event.

On Wednesday, I was supposed to meet the reporter at USA Today‘s D.C. bureau at noon. Easy. Well, turns out it wasn’t so easy. I left the dorm at 10 a.m., and it took me about an hour (with traffic) to get to D.C. That was great, except I could not find a parking garage in the area that was not full.
First mistake: Driving in D.C. period.
Second mistake: Not carrying cash since that’s all the parking garage accepted.
Third mistake: Wearing heels.

What ended up happening was that I found a parking garage a mile away from the bureau. I had to beg the parking attendant to let me walk to an ATM and get the $20 to park there. Anyway, long story short: I got lost numerous times trying to get to the bureau, my feet were bleeding, but I made it on time.

When we finally got to the White House, we went to the Press Briefing Room and from there we went to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building to cover the event. The Title IX event was awesome! I got to see Arne Duncan, the US secretary of education and Birch Bayh, the senator who created Title IX. Oh and tennis star Billie Jean King was there, no big deal.

So at the end of the day, I got my first USA Today clip, “40 years after Title IX, women still lag in tech fields” It appeared online and in print. It was also on the homepage of the USA Today website. It was such an amazing opportunity to be able to help out with this story.

In other news, I created a Father’s Day photo gallery of readers’ photos. I also made a photo gallery for a story on couples and attraction. Here’s the gallery on “Couples who look alike” Right now, I’m working on compiling photos for Corvette’s 59th birthday celebration, so if you have a Corvette, send me a picture!

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06/15/12 — The day I won the Robert Novak Collegiate Journalism Award

As I was walking back to my dorm from work a few days ago, the only thing on my mind was: “I can’t wait to take these shoes off.” Until my phone rang. It was an unknown number, but I decided to answer. It was one of the best phone calls I’ve ever received. “Hi, Polina. I’m just calling to say congratulations for winning first place in this year’s Robert Novak Collegiate Journalism Award. The award also comes with a $2,500 cash prize.” …Say what? I was so insanely excited that I could barely talk. Even though the cash prize is quite amazing, I was just so so excited that someone thought my work merited a national award.

To put this into context, the Robert Novak Award: “recognizes excellence in collegiate reporting in which the student’s work demonstrates an understanding of the basic ideas that support a free society, including freedom of the press, freedom of speech and free-market economic principles.”

Additionally, “judges will recognize students who show initiative and original reporting, and superior writing skills, as well as an understanding of the principles of individual freedom. In addition, a quality piece will also demonstrate a skill for accuracy in reporting as well as good use of sources.”

All I can say is that I am so beyond honored. I owe this award to Ed, adviser of The Red & Black, and the entire Red & Black staff. Ed is seriously someone who stands by student reporters and genuinely wants to see them succeed. I can’t thank him or the staff enough.

But I really also want to thank the people at the Institute on Political Journalism who thought that I deserve this award. So many student journalists work hard every day to expose the truth, but are often not taken seriously by administrators simply because they are students. I’ve had an official raise his voice, hang up the phone and then call back to apologize. It’s not easy, but if journalism is your passion, that’s just a part of the job. So thank you IPJ. Receiving the Robert Novak Award reassures me that the time and effort student journalists put into their work will be recognized.

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06/13/12 — First week (and a half) at USA Today: Incredible.

Intern badge. Legit.

I am an intern. An intern at a national daily newspaper — also known as journalistic heaven. I have officially completed my first week working at the reader advocacy and engagement desk at USA Today. I was going to write a blog post last weekend, but I was busy catching up on, you know, sleep. So, I guess technically I’ve worked there for a week and three days, but who’s counting? It’s been an absolutely phenomenal experience so far.

The first day was orientation. We got a tour of the building and met people who worked at both USA Today and Gannett. My goal for the summer is to meet as many people as humanly possible. Even though it was the first day, we wasted no time. I was situated in an adorable cubicle where my supervisor helped me set up my work laptop and monitor. Then, we had a mixer with the other interns as well as some key employees. I found out three things. One — I’m the only intern from the South.  Two, everyone seemed to really enjoy their jobs at USA Today. And three, the cafeteria is called the “Breaking News Cafe.” It makes my heart skip a beat. (Yes, I’m fully aware of how nerdy that sounds.)

In the next week, I received my official USA Today/Gannett intern badge so that I could finally get into the parking garage. Success. I also attended the daily morning budget meeting where USA Today editors discuss what stories they have coming up. Also can we reflect on the fact that I love dressing up every morning? I’m still learning to walk in heels without looking like a 5-year-old, but I love that everyone’s so professional and clean cut.

In terms of work, I’ve worked on updating USA Today’s Pinterest account. For now I’ve added two additional boards — the 2012 CMA Awards and the Great American Bites. Country music and BBQ. Really, who wouldn’t repin those? Anyway, the other intern and I created a quiz as a topper for a cover story on the “War on Sugar.” It was actually really fun making the quiz. I had to find photos, edit them using an in-house software program and then we uploaded the questions and photos to another system to be published along with the quiz. This week, I learned how to navigate a more complicated program that took a lot of time, but I managed to upload a few “calls to action.” You can see them here: Look Alike Couples Needed, Trip to Rediscover Your Roots and Send a Father’s Day Picture.

I’m currently working on compiling photos for a Father’s Day project. So if you have any, tweet them to me @polina_marinova or send them to pmarinova@usatoday.com.

Although hard news is my passion, I gave feature writing a shot.

I interned at Atlanta Parent Magazine — a nationally award-winning publication that serves 240,000 readers in 18 counties. During the internship, I wrote features, back-to-school articles and restaurant reviews.

In addition, I compiled lists of local events for the monthly calendar and updated the magazine's social media websites. 

Education:

University of Georgia, Athens, GA
Journalism Major, Sociology Minor, New Media Certificate and Media Leadership Certificate, May 2013;
GPA: 3.8/4.0

Journalism Experience:

CNN, Atlanta, GA

iReport and Features Intern (Jan. 2013 – April 2013)

• Wrote four articles for CNN.com
• Supported the living, entertainment, technology, travel and health sections of CNN.com
• Produced ideas for iReport call-to-actions and developed the ideas into timely features

USA Today, McLean, VA

Reader Engagement/Mobile Intern (June 2012 – Aug. 2012)

• Monitored site feedback
• Pitched and brainstormed audience engagement ideas
• Produced photo galleries
• Moderated comments

The Red & Black Newspaper, Athens, GA

Editor-in-Chief (Aug.  2012 – December 2012)                                                                                                                          

• Oversaw and guided editorial staff
• Conducted weekly budget staff meetings
• Served as newspaper’s ambassador to the community and university’s upper administration
• Read all final copy before clearing pages

Managing Editor (Dec. 2011 – May 2012)

• Oversaw and coordinate story coverage with all desk editors
• Served on the editorial board and helped set the tone for the paper
• Booked pages and distributed final budget for the upcoming issue

Senior Reporter (Aug. 2011 – Dec. 2011)

• Obtained and sorted through open records documents and interview top administrators and officials
• Developed in-depth investigative stories for news section

Page Designer  (Aug. 2011 – Dec. 2011)

• Designed sports, news and variety pages for the newspaper using InDesign
• Worked with section editors and chief photographer to make page visually appealing

Editor-in-Chief (May 2011 – Aug. 2011)                                                                                                                          

• Oversaw and guided editorial staff
• Conducted weekly budget staff meetings
• Served as newspaper’s ambassador to the community and university’s upper administration
• Read all final copy before clearing pages

Associate News Editor ( Dec. 2010 – May 2011)            

• Developed story ideas for news staff meetings
• Edited, name-checked and fact-checked first drafts of all news stories using InCopy
• Wrote headlines and cutlines for news section

News and Senior Administration Beat Reporter (Oct. 2009 – Dec. 2010)

• Reported on important university, administration, budget and campus life issues
• Attended meetings with top university administrators and officials
• Accumulated more than 90 clips – administration, crime, feature, investigative and breaking news stories

Atlanta Parent Magazine, Atlanta, GA
Editorial Intern  (June 2010 – Aug. 2010 )

• Wrote back-to-school features, restaurant reviews, and compiled lists of local events
• Updated magazine’s social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter
• Assisted Editor with fact-checking and feature articles

Additional Experience:

The Georgia Review (Aug. 2009 – May 2010)
Student Worker

• Entered magazine contributor information daily for manuscript tracking using an in-house database software
• Publicized 5+ events by distributing flyers on campus and downtown areas

Honors:

• McGill Fellow: Journalistic Courage
• $1,000 Hearst Award for Spot News Writing (Fourth place in nation)
• Region 3 Mark of Excellence Award (Second Place for Breaking News) – Society of Professional Journalists
• 2011 Associated Collegiate Press (second place): Multimedia Story of the Year
• 2011 Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Award (first place): Online in-depth reporting
• Selected from a national applicant pool to attend the Campus Media Seminar in Israel
• HOPE Scholarship Dean’s List
• Award for “Outstanding Reporting” for The Red & Black
• $1,000 Mobile-Press Scholarship
• Georgia Scholastic Press Association “Superior Sports Column”
• National Society of Collegiate Scholars