[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The Truman State University Press, an on-campus publishing company, is seeking a summer intern who is interested in the publishing industry.
The internship offers five credit hours and a skill set that might help students gain an edge on prospective job opportunities after graduation.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_video link=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHpSowiZiHs”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Barbara Smith-Mandell, the University Press’ Editor-in-Chief, says the internship involves copy editing manuscripts, designing book covers and working on marketing campaigns to sell books for the university press.
“Internships are a wonderful wonderful way to get real experience and the other thing that we found from people who finished an internship here is that they have actually gotten jobs in publishing and the person who hired them said it was your internship that made the difference,” Smith-Mandell says.
Smith-Mandell says students who have completed internships at the press have a leg up on competition in the editing business when they look for jobs. She says students learn the full process a text must go through in order to be published, while also giving them a specialization in the types of texts Truman’s University Press offers.
The press specializes in American Midwest literature, early modern studies, liberal arts, education and poetry, Smith-Mandell says. She says the majority of works published through the press have to do with these topics, which gives editors a high degree of knowledge in the field.
Smith-Mandell says while most of the students who apply are communication or English majors, the internship is open to every major.
The current University Press intern, Hayden Wilsey, says he learned a substantial amount of information during the internship and recommends that other students consider applying.
As an intern, WIlsey says there is no “typical” workday because authors create new texts constantly that require different attention.
Wilsey says his duties range from adding footnotes to scholarly works to designing covers for new books. Wilsey says his favorite aspect of the internship is the personal connection he makes with the produced works.
“I think that it’s so interesting to think through the parts of a bigger project that make a full text — breaking it down into smaller parts to see how it fits together,” Wilsey says.
The deadline to apply for the internship at the University Press is March 30. The application can be found on the press’ website at tsup.truman.edu.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]