When I was growing up, I had a friend whose Mom only let him watch PBS on tv. That was back in the days of Ghostwriter and Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego, so I guess it wasn’t too bad, but I still felt sorry for him. I didn’t know any better. I thought Nickelodeon and Saturday morning cartoons were as good as it could get. Well, I’m not sure my friend turned out any better than the kids who had access to 100 channels, but I do wish that I had spent more time watching educational programming, and less time watching reruns of Saved By the Bell over and over again. Just think how smart I would be if the area of my brain that is permanently occupied by early 90s sitcom trivia was instead filled with something useful like what you find on programming on the Public Broadcasting Service…
In case you avoided educational programming like the plague, we’ll give you a brief overview of what PBS does. The Public Broadcast Service is a non-profit “media enterprise that serves 355 public noncommercial television stations and reaches nearly 73 million people each week.” PBS draws most of its funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which receives significant government funding (15-20% Federal, and 25-30% State and Local). Much of the remaining funding comes from viewers who call in to PBS’ telethons to donate $250 in return for a tote bag. The programming on PBS can be all over the place, but its almost exclusively educational in some way, shape, or form. For the little kids there’s Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers, for the big kids there’s Arthur and Animalia, and for adults there are all kinds of news programs and documentaries. Some of my personal PBS favorites from years ago were Frontier House and American High, two of the best reality-type shows ever put on television.
Rockapella isn’t hiring Summer interns, but plenty of divisions at PBS are. We’re quite impressed with PBS’ internship offerings - all of which are based in Alexandria, VA - for 3 reasons: there is an amazing breadth of topics covered, they pay ($8 an hour), and they’re willing to take underclassmen. Undergraduates can apply to intern with PBS in Corporate Brand, Government & Regulatory Affairs, PBS Foundation, PBS KIDS Interactive, PBS Parents, PBS TeacherLine Digital Development, TeacherLine Marketing, and Technology Strategy. While MBA students have two options: PBS Interactive Video and Technology and Operations. The descriptions on each internship’s page are quite descriptive and are specific about the types of people PBS wants for each position. PBS has a relatively easy to use job search function, so you can watch to see if they list any new internships. And if you’re looking for a full time job, don’t overlook PBS’ entry-level positions.
Many local PBS stations offer internships as well, so you may want to look this list of links to local PBS stations’ Jobs pages. These might be more convenient since PBS probably has a local station within commuting distance of where you live. Don’t overlook these opportunities! Many of the local PBS stations are responsible for producing the shows that you see on all PBS stations, so they’re not some mom and pop operation.
Links to Help You Begin Your Research
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Tags: child development, events, fundraising, Internships, marketing, non-profit, public relations, regulatory affairs, software development, television
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