VPM is a place where employees and interns alike can bring their most authentic, creative, and enthusiastic selves to the workplace — you won’t fetch coffee here — you will gain real-life experience and new skills while creating content that matters. But, not only will you walk away with great experience to add to your work portfolio; when we can, we love to hire our interns, too.
THE INSIDE STORY:
VPM is the largest locally owned and operated public media company in the region, each week reaching more than 300,000 people throughout central Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley. In addition, we serve as the local PBS & NPR station for communities across Virginia such as Harrisonburg, Charlottesville, and Richmond. We are pleased to offer an internship program to students enrolled in graduate or undergraduate studies (or) students who have graduated twelve months prior to the time of application. The Internship Program shares VPM’s mission and vision, and simultaneously helps interns gain real-life experience in the work place in media-related fields of their choice. Additionally, as part of our mission, VPM believes attracting and retaining diverse staff, including for our internship positions, is crucial to serving our community and fulfilling our mission to create and serve a more informed public.
It is thanks to generous community donor support, including a generous grant from the family of Sarah Raybin Portlock, that we have the ability to offer paid internship opportunities to students interested in public media, or related fields. You can read more on Sarah’s story here.
HOW THE INTERNSHIP PROGRAM WORKS:
Initially, all interns go through an application and interview process to be part of our team! This is great practice for the real world, too. Once selected, you would go through a similar new-employee/new hire onboarding as part of our real-life work experience here at VPM.
Internship schedules can be flexible based on class schedules, or other commitments, and are typically 9a-5p, Monday-Friday, and hours vary between 15- 20 hours per week. All our Interns are typically paid $15 per hour.
We currently offer internships in the areas of: News, Radio/Music, Production, Digital, and Community Engagement, Community Engagement/Development, and the Focal Point News Show. Positions are based on individual departmental needs. See “When to Apply” section below for internship application windows, and durations. See individual department requirements below.
WHEN TO APPLY:
Winter/Spring Internship: Applications accepted October 1 – November 15
Internship typically lasts January through May
Summer Internship: Applications accepted March 1 – April 15
Internship typically lasts May through August/September
Fall Internship: Applications accepted July 1 – August 15
Internship typically lasts September through December
WHO WE’RE LOOKING FOR:
Undergraduate applicants majoring in or with concentrations in: Journalism, Broadcast Journalism, Mass Communications, Public Relations, Marketing, Computer Science, Television Production, Radio Production, Production, Video/Film, Communications, Media Arts & Design, Media Studies, Music Education, Music Performance. Please see individual application requirements for each department below. High School students are also encouraged to apply for consideration.
INTERNSHIP DUTIES & REQUIREMENTS (BY DEPARTMENT)
VPM Digital/News Internship (Richmond): All semesters apply. Intern tasks include: Covering news events, write/record stories for newscasts and web, record/edit community events, speeches, roundtables, etc for broadcast. Some may work on a semester long feature storytelling project. Helping to develop graphics for social media and web, assisting team members in developing social media campaigns, project research, production assistant for video content, photography, helping to capture and edit audio, accompanying staff offsite to NPR, PBS, and interview/film venues. At times, there may be multiple interns, working on different items, or acting as a liaison between VPM News and VPM Digital doing Video/Audio Production Assistant, drafting social media posts, creating visualizations to accompany reporting, producing digital videos and/or photography, shadowing reporters and conducting interviews for audio or video stories.
Requirements: Some experience is required. Resume, writing samples, audio samples, and a cover letter must be submitted for consideration.
VPM Music/Radio Internship (Richmond): All semesters apply. Intern tasks vary depending on the qualifications of the individual. Some tasks include: assisting with interviews and live performances, helping create online playlists, and maintaining a calendar of local events.
Requirements: Open to all levels of experience. Must submit anything that shows involvement and interest in music and/or cover letter detailing why an internship here would be beneficial to both VPM and the potential intern.
VPM Production/Post-Production Internship (Richmond): Intern tasks include: Post-production assistance including transcription, media management, and video editing.
Requirements: Some experience required. Must submit a resume, cover letter, and link to portfolio/video reel for consideration.
VPM Marketing & Communications Internship: This intern would work with the marketing and communications team. Some key tasks for this internship include: Extracting, cleaning, and integrating data from disparate marketing data sources, helping to build reports that inform, educate, and engage clients, hands on creation of ad hoc reports, and assisting with building presentations if needed, and other client-facing documentation.
Requirements: Some experience desired, but not required. Educational coursework in data science, computer science, data analysis or marketing. Having an interest/experience working in data or building reports for school projects, ability to listen, communicate and iterate, be a collaborative team player. Goodgle Analytics, Tag manager, Data Studio, Adwords, or Power BI experience desired. Must submit work samples for consideration.
VPM Education & Engagement Internship (Richmond): Authentic engagement deepens our relationships within the community. It is the key to building and maintaining vital connections that inform and ensure our content meets community needs and impacts beneficial change in our community. Engagement opportunities fall into one or more of the following 5 genres: arts, culture, history, science, and education. Intern tasks vary depending on the qualifications of the individual and the specific engagement plan.
Requirements: Some experience in project management. All of Microsoft suite and Google Drive. Must submit a resume, and cover letter.
VPM Focal Point News (Richmond): VPM News Focal Point seeks interns who have an interest in long-form television broadcast journalism as well as integrated reporting across multiple news platforms. Preference will be given to those who have studied broadcast journalism and who have some experience shooting video and writing for broadcast, digital, and print. Duties may include occasional on-camera reporting during Richmond City Council meetings (coverage airs live on VPM, channel 23), researching assigned story topics, conducting interviews, writing for the web or radio and television, and shadowing reporting teams in the field.
Requirements: Please be familiar with our news program and share your feedback about the show and your long-term communications interests and goals with us in your cover letter.
All applicants must be eligible to work in the US. Work schedules are typically weekday daytime hours, 12 - 20 hours per week. Internships may be paid or completed in exchange for college credit. Interns are embedded with a specific department and perform meaningful work designed to help the station achieve goals, and to help the intern receive a real-world experience. Copy of your resume is required. Copy of your Cover Letter is required. Microsoft Suite Experience is preferred. Google Drive Experience is preferred. Any applicable links to portfolio, writing sample, audio sample, or video samples, if applicable, is also preferred.
READY TO JOIN THE TEAM?
Our Winter/Spring 2023 Internship Application window has closed.
Please come back to this page to apply for our Summer semester! The window opens in February 2023.