We’ve had ongoing discussions about the partnership between Mount Vernon-Lisbon Sun and the Daily Iowan, and we had an intern this summer that has assisted us.

Intern Joel Kellar will be staying on as an intern with reduced hours in the coming school year as well.

We’re also going to be seeing help from some of the classes at the Daily Iowan to help bolster our sports photography and reporting. People who pay attention to our sports pages know we’re blessed with some fantastic stringers and students from the Mustang Moon that happily provide photos for us on a weekly basis. Those partnerships are ongoing. This is another way we’re letting students at the Daily Iowan get experience themselves and build our coverage.

You may see some recaps of the games on Friday nights, brief stories that those students are doing as part of their partnership with the Cedar Rapids Gazette that benefits us as well. Ryan will still be writing the big game stories and visit with the coaches every week for a range of sports.

But this is another way we’re taking smaller steps in what works for students to get that experience of working at a community weekly newspaper before they leave college.

This past Tuesday, members of the newspaper staff, and a few select community members and city officials were interviewed by Teri Finneman, from the University of Kansas who is doing her own work on a book about the partnership between journalism schools and newspapers. I’m really interested to read how this has worked at other school and newspapers myself, but the questions she provided staff before hand gave me time to reflect and prepare for the interview. I’m so used to being on the other side of asking questions that to have to answer some of them myself sets me slightly aback.

I have done this career for almost 20 years now. At times, it’s been rocky. At times I’ve worried about my job.

But through it all, the importance of this job, be that covering the happenings at a council meeting or school board or telling someone’s story always remind me why I got into this profession to begin with.

It’s always changing, every week and year. While the same events and festivals may pop up, you gain something different in your coverage each time. And you have the privilege to tell people’s stories to a community at large.