first published in the June 2021 Equiery
My name is Olivia Wood and I’m a senior at Glenelg High School. This year, I had the opportunity to be a part of my school’s mentorship program, through which students conduct original research and produce a final research paper. Each of us is paired with a professional in our field of interest, who then becomes our mentor as we explore our respective fields.
Going into this course, I knew that I was interested in journalism and graphic design, and I chose to research the impact that design choices have on readers’ perceptions of a given publication. For the internship portion of my mentorship experience, I hoped to work in the realm of magazine publication, specifically, because I enjoy the strong visual nature of magazines and how, alongside the journalism itself, design plays an instrumental role in the creation of an attractive magazine.
Happily, I was able to be placed with a mentor who works on a magazine, The Equiery’s own Katherine Rizzo. As an intern at The Equiery, I’ve gotten a taste of the extensive work that goes into publishing a new issue of a magazine every month. While I still have so much more to learn about journalism and graphic design, my knowledge of these respective areas has grown significantly. I’ve gone from doing practice magazine covers, barely able to navigate Photoshop, to writing articles for publication in The Equiery and designing flyers for the Maryland Horse Council. And although I’m admittedly not an equine aficionado, I’ve enjoyed learning about Maryland’s rich equine culture alongside graphic design and journalism skills.
As someone who aims to pursue a career in journalism, I’m so incredibly thankful to have had this internship experience in high school. It’s given me a taste of both journalism and graphic design, strengthening my interest in these areas and compelling me to go on to study both of them in college this fall.
