Harrisburg – Page 2 – Christopher Wink

The Pennsylvania Legislative Correspondents’ Association: a brief history

When I am done at the end of August, I will have reported with top-flight state political reporters from the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, the Allentown Morning-Call, the Harrisburg Patriot-News and the online-only subscription service Capitolwire.

What unites them all is that they are members of the Pennsylvania Legislative Correspondents’ Association. The nearly 115-year-old organization doesn’t do much to promote itself because it is mostly an informal collection of members from a struggling industry, so I didn’t know much about it when I got here.

I have learned plenty and thought many might be interested, too.

Continue reading The Pennsylvania Legislative Correspondents’ Association: a brief history

Welcome to Harrisburg

Well, I’ve made the move from Philadelphia to Harrisburg.

That has been rough, but I can’t get Internet access yet in my new digs, so bear with these technical difficulties and a light posting week.

Tomorrow I start my new job covering the statehouse with the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association Pennsylvania Legislative Correspondents’ Association – so I hope to reform this into the adventures of a professional journalist. Terrifying.

My post-graduate plans resolved… for now

Update: Read a review of my PLCA internship experience here.

IT WAS EARLY MARCH that I applied for a summer internship covering the Harrisburg, Pa. statehouse for a handful of urban dailies.

The internship is with the Pennsylvania Legislative Correspondents’ Association*, the oldest continuously operating journalism society in the country.

Well, after an interview in Harrisburg three weeks ago, I am happy to report that I was offered the gig on Monday and accepted it yesterday.

It is a 12-week program paying $500 a week. Interns spend two- or three-week rotations writing for The Philadelphia Inquirer (350,000 circulation) Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (214,000 circulation) Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, The Morning Call (Allentown, Pa., 109,000 circulation)) and The Patriot-News in Harrisburg.

It is an opportunity to cover and learn a great deal about the state government, while not facing the permanence I am not convinced I should undertake at my young age and in my relatively privileged state. So, come September I will be free to do some traveling, after proving to a potential employer that I was able to get a position right after graduation.

Indeed, this has been a week of big announcements, starting with my being named Temple’s commencement speaker here in the last week of my college career.

*Amended 9/6/08 4:32 P.M.

My Harrisburg Internship

Well, I am taking another swing at this whole ‘getting a job’ upon graduating in May.

Today, I am submitting my name for an internship in capital city Harrisburg, Pa., with the Pennsylvania Legislative Correspondents Association, associated with the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association, the group that awarded me, among others, a Keystone Press Award earlier this month Pennsylvania Legislative Correspondents’ Association.

So, I just packaged my resume, an academic transcript and five clips, including my recent-most byline on accountants serving abroad for the Philadelphia Business Journal, a story I wrote for the Inquirer on a portrait of Pope John Paul II in April 2006, and my well-received profile of a Temple alumnus who fought in World War II, and a story I wrote for the Inqy on accidentally acquiring hepatitis in March 2006. I also submitted the initial story I wrote on Temple University seeking a new dean for its Japan campus.

Wish me luck!