By Gloria Hurtado

An hour's train ride on the Metra, walking along past tempting shops on Michigan Avenue, and finally getting to Wacker Drive in the heart of Chicago may sound like a day trip downtown, but in fact it was UI Junior Julie Zare’s daily routine this past summer.

Zare interned for Schofield Media, a magazine publishing company based in Chicago and the UK, which has a list of clients ranging from Food and Drink to US Business Review. How did Zare land such an amazing internship? She said she sought out Schofield all on her own.

“Everyone must start somewhere and contacting companies shows initiative,” Zare said. “Previous experience as a writer and intern for the Daily Iowan helps. Also, courses within the school of Journalism are important.”

Writing for the DI was helpful because its setup paralleled the work she did at Schofield. “I still edited stories that were given to me and wrote my own stories sometimes 1-5 pages long,” she said.

However, her previous experience at the DI never put her to work with desktop publishing and design or something every intern must suffer, filing.

Looking back, though, suffering she did not.

“The only scary/bad day I had at work was when I had to meet with all of the top editors for a luncheon,” she said. “It was really intimidating.”

For the most part, Zare was able to work with people in their 20s, which she thinks made it a little easier for them to relate to one another. They also found it easy to work with her. Her internship supervisor, Joanna Miller, whom she referred to as the most influential person while working for Schofield, described Zare as “a great intern, a good example of someone looking for an opportunity and not just waiting around for one.”

Highlighting Zare's industriousness, Miller added, “She was really proactive in addition to her own work which required her to meet a lot of deadlines.”

A tip everyone should learn from is that getting to know your job and surroundings well helps.

“Julie asked a lot of questions,” said Miller. For her, asking questions allowed her to learn more about her job and how to become a better writer.

Working for Schofield helped Zare realize a lot about the process of writing and her future in journalism.

“You have to learn to ask a lot of questions and always be ready to accept criticism,” she said.

Zare appreciated the feedback she received from her supervisors and co-editors because it made her a better writer. These experiences will be valuable as she embarks on a career in either public relations or magazines. She commented on a desire to possibly work for another publishing company in the future, but her dream entails writing for a magazine in New York -- She said she'd personally like to work for Self, People, or North Shore magazine.

Because working for Schofield led her into downtown Chicago from the suburbs, Zare experienced commuting every day for the first time, getting to know the city well. She learned so much in Chicago, she now considers living there later on in her career.