(Editor’s Note: This is the sixth in a series of stories about College of Communications students completing summer internships.)
For one Penn State student, a summer sleep schedule is anything but normal.
Because he may work anything from a typical 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. schedule or a 3 to 11 a.m. day, a steady sleep pattern can be difficult to establish.
“My sleep schedule gets wonky. I kind of get some sleep any way I can, whether it’s napping during the day,” said Waiss David Aramesh.
“It’s tough, but at the same time, I do feel like it’s just the price to pay for being able to intern here.”
Aramesh, a senior broadcast journalism student, is interning with CNN in Atlanta this summer. He works with the show “New Day Weekend,” which airs from 6 to 9 a.m. Saturdays and 6 to 8 a.m. Sundays, and touches on all of the latest news and top stories.
“I think broadcast journalism is the kind of industry that the real-life experience helps you immensely,” said Aramesh. “There are some things you can’t learn just in a classroom. To be able to interact with people who have done this for 10, 15, 20 years, that’s an amazing opportunity. The people I’ve gotten to work with have been super nice. I’m obviously interested and fascinated by the things that they do, but in return, they have shown me the same kind of interest that I have. They want my experience to be just as good as I want that.”
While Aramesh said the schedule is tough on his sleep patterns and his social life, it’s also not new for him. Last summer, he interned for a local CBS station in New York City. There, he started at 3 a.m. But regardless, the opportunity to work for the show is the most important thing for Aramesh, who said he has always enjoyed watching “New Day.”
A benefit to being in Atlanta and working with this particular show, Aramesh said, is that the anchors, Victor Blackwell and Christi Paul, are on-site. A lot of CNN’s anchors are in New York City. The proximity allows Aramesh to interact with the anchors and see how they work with the producers, as well as how they handle themselves in front of a camera.
Aramesh, who works Thursday through Monday, spends his time cutting video, finding voiceover images, creating visuals, working with producers to find guests and putting things into a rundown. When he works on Saturdays and Sundays for the live show, he is on a headset in the control room listening to the directors and producers.
“The best part is definitely feeling like you’re contributing. I love to work, I love to make content, I love producing and feeling like I’m working toward something,” said Aramesh.
But, despite prep on Thursdays and Fridays, Aramesh said things can always change in the blink of an eye depending on what is going on in the news.
“Some days, you’ll plan on Thursday and Friday and then that’s the kind of show you’ll do on the weekend,” said Aramesh. “Then, some days you’ll have to scrap everything. Sometimes you plan and sometimes everything you plan for gets cut.”
Aramesh, who was born in London and moved to New York City in 1996, had never stayed more than a day anywhere south of Virginia prior to this internship. He did have vital experience in this field heading into the internship, though.
At Penn State, he spent time as an anchor and executive producer for PSN News, a student-run TV station on campus, and has worked at the Daily Collegian for two years.
While at CNN, one thing that has stuck out to him is the way everyone at the show is able to work together as a cohesive unit to put together a great product day in and day out. While he had an idea of how things like that worked from his experiences at Penn State, seeing it on such a large scale has been “an amazing opportunity and eye-opening to say the least.”
Going forward, he hopes to do something on-air and work with people who are directly affected by the stories he covers.
“Talking with the reporters and anchors at CNN, I’ve definitely solidified my passion and drive when it comes to this industry,” said Aramesh. “Working at CNN has given me some real-world experience that I’m extremely lucky to have going back to Penn State in the fall and after I graduate.”