For Bee intern, goal is to build ‘communities of compassion‘

Jennifer Crane spent the summer interning as a reporter at The Sacramento Bee as part of a partnership between the paper and AAJA Sacramento that is now in its sixth year.Jennifer Crane

“My internship has made me a better journalist since I interacted with the community we serve on a daily basis,” she said.

She was also among the college students selected for the Voices project, which was held during the AAJA national convention in San Francisco. The convention student project celebrated its 25th anniversary.

“Participating in Voices challenged the way I see journalism,” Crane said. “It emphasized the importance of multimedia and the power of change.”

Crane is a senior majoring in communication studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is the Daily Bruin’s broadcast producer. After graduation, she plans to work for a year before pursuing a master’s degree in journalism at Columbia University and a Ph.D. in communication studies.

She has worked as a student columnist for The Corning Observer, a print/radio reporter and editor for the Daily Bruin and a broadcast intern at IdeateTV.

Crane said she is passionate about writing, education and environmental sustainability and hopes to combine them through in-depth reporting.

“At 13 I knew I wanted to be a journalist – I just felt it,” she said. “I felt it is my purpose in life. It’s more than the act of writing. It is telling a story and creating a community of compassion.”