The following is the caption timecode transcript. It’s for your convenience (Control F) and accessibility.
00:00:00:00 – 00:00:19:08
Hi, my name is Jessica Gomez and I am in the class of 2025. I have a major in creative writing, specifically nonfiction and a minor in journalism. And this past spring I interned at Spoon University. it’s an online food based, magazine targeted towards Gen Z and college students. That company is kind of an offshoot of Her Campus Media.
00:00:19:11 – 00:00:28:27
My official title was an Editorial Intern. So I worked on editorial content and content creation for, Spoon and I worked directly under the managing editor.
00:00:34:06 – 00:01:01:21
I found my internship on handshake, as many Emerson students do. I was applying to a lot of internships that pretty much anything to do with writing anywhere I could be creating content. Whether it be like a publishing group or a magazine, even some copywriting things with marketing. and I had interviews. Spoon went really well, and I was moved on to the next round where I was given an edit test, which is basically like trying out the internship and, you know, seeing how I could perform in the skills that I would be doing every day.
00:01:01:24 – 00:01:16:20
And I remember I was given a week to complete the test, and I did it in probably three days because I was just having so much fun doing it. I never realized how much I loved writing about food. and so once I got that back and received an offer I was super excited to start, and.
00:01:19:20 – 00:01:38:16
I worked directly under Spoon’s managing editor, Felicia LaLomia, and she was absolutely amazing. Every day I would log on. Do some research around, like TikTok or, you know, just googling things other food websites see what they were writing about, and find things that were trending or unique stories, you know, new products coming out.
00:01:38:18 – 00:01:57:24
or Felicia would have something for me and ask me if I want to write about it, but if not, I would come up with 2 or 3 pitches that I felt like I could write about. send them to Felicia, and then she would them or pick one. and then I would write it up. She would, you know, edit it, and then I would get it into our back end website and publish it pretty much the same day.
00:01:57:26 – 00:02:15:10
Sometimes, you know, the schedule for the weekend or something like that when they don’t have writers on. And then if I had spare time in my workday, I would, work on some long form feature stories that I had, whether it be like an interview or I wrote a couple of, like, more personal, you know, long form, pieces.
00:02:15:10 – 00:02:23:04
So, yeah, I was pretty much turning something around every day. And then if not, I was also working on some things that were coming in the future.
00:02:26:20 – 00:02:48:03
My favorite part about my internship was feeling like I knew what I was talking about, because it was a magazine for college kids and I’m a college student. And I also would just like, realize how much I love writing about food. Like, I hope that, like, that’s a niche I can get to in the future. I’m super happy to have found that little like, kind of perk of you know, the writing world that suits me.
00:02:48:03 – 00:03:14:12
My favorite project I probably worked on. I did one that was an Asian-American Pacific Islanders Month feature that was about the lack of Filipino restaurants in the United States and how it’s kind of like, disproportionate to the number of Filipino people there are. And I interviewed a couple of restaurant owners in Boston. There’s like 1 or 2, Filipino restaurants in Boston, and I contacted them.
00:03:14:14 – 00:03:30:25
and the interviews were super cool, as we talked about a lot about Filipino food, about to try their food. and I just like, love that. I was also, like, able to do something with my heritage. I’m Filipino, and just kind of, like, promote, you know, the food of my culture and, Yeah.
00:03:33:20 – 00:03:50:10
Taking feedback is really important. I took feedback pretty much every day. some days, you know, I wasn’t able to turn around a piece, in the same day just because, like, it went through a lot of changes, a lot of feedback, a lot of criticism that I had to, you know, work out. But it always worked out in the end.
00:03:50:10 – 00:04:09:01
So like I also in saying that, like good writing takes time and, and you know, your your piece is going to look a lot different than maybe it started as and the other thing is to really learn how to like adjust your tone and your style of writing specific to your audience, especially with a magazine like this that has such a kind of niche audience.
00:04:09:03 – 00:04:24:29
you have to know, you know, kind of how it works. Even though it’s not your favorite thing in the world. Like there is a specific style that goes into writing to college students. it’s going to be a little bit different than like those New York Times cooking or whatever. So, yeah, that’s definitely something I learned, to adjust to.
00:04:24:29 – 00:04:28:09
And it’s a good skill that I’m happy to take to the future.
00:04:32:02 – 00:04:45:23
One thing that I wish I knew coming into it, but that I’m really glad to have learned, I think I learned quickly, was that you’re not always going to get to write about what you want to write about. Sometimes your editor just sees things in a bigger picture. They have like a lot of experience. of course.
00:04:45:23 – 00:05:06:05
And, you know, there were days where I would send my editor, you know, three pitches but, you know, I have kind of an emotional tie to one of them, and it wouldn’t get picked. Like, sometimes you just gotta roll with the punches. Maybe you can, like, pitch it again with a little bit of a spin to it. but you kind of have to, you know, let your emotions aside a little bit and, just kind of do the job at hand.
