Robert Carter is paper’s first summer intern

By Ruth Melville
This summer, Norfolk Now has been fortunate to have Robert Carter, a talented college intern, on its staff.

Carter, the son of Lisa and Warren Carter, grew up in Norfolk and attended Indian Mountain School and Regional 7. In the fall he will be returning to Lynchburg College, in Virginia, where he is going to be a junior. He’s majoring in communications studies, with an emphasis on “convergent journalism,” which combines print, broadcast and online writing. Carter originally planned to study media production and technology, but quickly realized that he “was not a techie” and began to take more classes in writing.

At school, Carter is on the staff of the student-run weekly paper, The Critograph. Major stories he covered for his school last year included the building of a new fitness center and the development of a student-alumni networking program.

As Norfolk Now’s first summer intern, Carter’s primary beat was covering town government. He wrote the Eye on Town Government column for both the July and August issues. For August, he also wrote an article on Botelle School’s plans for implementing the new Common Core standards. Carter was a particularly good fit for this topic, since his mother is the principal at Salisbury Central School.

Wiley Wood, an executive editor at Norfolk Now, says that “it was a pleasure to work with Rob. We sent him to cover a bunch of town meetings and he came back with the goods. He’s got a knack for sifting through the minutiae and coming up with a narrative line. And he has a very professional attitude toward editorial suggestions.”

Carter enjoyed his time at the newspaper and feels it was a valuable learning experience. Working on a professional paper with experienced editors was satisfying, as was getting a chance to cover public meetings. Norfolk Now’s monthly schedule was also a plus. Being accustomed to working on a weekly publication, he appreciated having more time to develop a story. But most of all he enjoyed reporting on the town where he grew up and getting to see what happens behind the scenes. As he puts it, “I particularly liked being able to tell people things they wouldn’t have known unless I told them.”

Next summer Carter hopes to intern on another paper, perhaps the Waterbury Republican.

Photo by Owen Wood.