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Adventurous alum wins newspaper intern award 3:46 p.m., Oct. 31, 2006--Feature stories under the headline, “Stuff We Made the Intern Do,” involved reporter Natalie Torentinos, AS '06, in a series of adventures last summer ranging from being a clown in a Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey circus to riding in a hot air balloon. Torentinos wrote up her escapades in a series for the Houston Chronicle and won the competitive Texas Daily Newspaper Association and Cox Enterprises 2006 H.M. Fentress Award for summer interns. Chronicle pop culture editor Syd Kearney, who nominated Torentinos, wrote readers “expressed their approval and delight in phone calls and e-mails.” He also said she “pushed for a well-rounded newsroom experience during her summer internship,” making a point to know the entire staff and even asking to work with the newspaper's “seasoned cop reporters.” “I had some outrageous experiences,” Torentinos recalled. “As a circus clown, I was dressed in brown baggy pants and suspenders, wore a big red nose and my hair, which is long, was thrown over my face. I had to mingle with the audience and make jokes (they weren't very good) and play the bongo drums in the clown band.” At a polka party, she learned how to polka from a couple of pros, who had polkaed in every state of the union. Wearing a hot woolen uniform in the Texas heat, Torentinos became a weekend warrior as a Confederate soldier in a re-enactment of a Civil War skirmish, learning to load and fire a rifle (no real ammunition). She also had a complete makeover--her hair was cut, make up prescribed (she uses little if any) and she was given a job interview outfit. In another episode, she got a spray-on tan--also not her bag. Torentinos attended a psychic convention, and had a very conventional reading, she said. Her favorite activity was the ride in the hot air balloon, quietly floating over the Texas countryside. Currently, Torentinos is working on the political beat for the Williamsport Sun-Gazette in Pennsylvania and is involved in covering this year's elections. While a student at UD, Torentinos said she took a journalism course and found her calling. She worked for The Review for three semesters as features editor and news features editor, which, she said, provided an invaluable experience in working in a newsroom, meeting deadlines, coming up with ideas for stories and improving her writing skills. Article by Sue Moncure |
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