Journalism and communications are undergoing an exciting transformation, and you can learn how you can be part of it by taking the Washington Journalism and New Media Semester.

We focus on how print and broadcast media are changing and how online journalism is offering a wealth of new opportunities for young people. We also teach you how the basic core values of journalism must be maintained during this transformative time.

We introduce you to some of the key players. You will talk to journalists at the Washington Post, the Huffington Post, CBS, NBC, National Geographic, Bloomberg, Al Jazeera, USA Today and the Hearst Washington Bureau. We listen to some of the leading speakers at the National Press Club, get a journalist-eye view of the U.S. Capitol, learn environmental reporting while cruising on the Chesapeake Bay, sit in on Supreme Court arguments and get an international correspondent’s view of Washington at the Foreign Press Center.

We learn from Pulitzer Prize winners Jerry Kammer and Marc Stern, CBS News legend Bob Schieffer, globe trotting USA Today correspondent Donna Leinwand, National Geographic filmmaker John Bredar, Facebook executive Andrew Noyes, Huffington Post bureau chief Ryan Grim, NBC assistant bureau chief Ken Strickland, Fox senior White House correspondent Ed Henry (a WSP alum), Politico executive editor Jim VandeHei and a host of others.

Our students work as interns two days a week at some of the leading news organizations in Washington. Just in recent terms, our students have been at the NBC Washington bureau, in the newsrooms at the local affiliates for NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox, working with reporters at the BBC and ARD (the German news organization, with Chris Matthews at MSNBC, at the Hearst Washington Bureau, Voice of America, Al Jazeera and the Huffington Post. Our students have interned in the press offices for House members and senators, with leading public relations firms, advocacy groups and Smithsonian museums. Our journalism professors have a wealth of contacts around town and pride themselves in placing our students where they want to be.

You will learn how to use your internship to get that first job and network to advance in your career from Ron Bonjean, a WSP alum who went on to be press secretary for both House Speaker Denny Hastert and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott.

And you will improve your writing skills while reporting stories and interviewing sources around Washington. You will come out a better writer, which will help you no matter what form of journalism and communication you choose to pursue.

Skills and contacts you acquire during your semester will provide you with a solid backbone for success in journalism and communication. We hear over and over from happily employed Washington Semester alums that “This semester changed my life.” As you will soon discover, Washington is the center of the media universe and you will be part of it.

Let us help you get started. The sooner you enroll, the sooner we can get started arranging your internship.