By Brenna Ebner
The internship program at Towson University has helped me, many other graduates, and current students find not only experience in the field we plan to enter but help in building our resumes in interesting and fulfilling ways. This speaks to the many options and great freedom given to students who participate in the program. For example, many internships can take you abroad if you choose to go that route, and the final report for English majors, specifically, can be a mix of creativity and data on a topic of your choice rather than just a tedious research paper. All this goes to show that Towson wants their students to enjoy their experience while keeping an emphasis on learning and growing academically and professionally. Towson welcomes these opportunities for a student to not only help their college career but beyond as well, as they enter the full-time working world.
Some majors require you to participate in an internship while others may let you substitute an internship for a capstone course—an option I found offered to me as an English major. I took advantage of the opportunity and used my internship time to finish up my last year and semester as Editor-in-Chief of Towson’s literary magazine, Grub Street, in 2020. Constant guidance was offered to me by the Grub Street faculty advisor, Jeannie Vanasco, as well by my internship coordinator, Dr. Zosha Stuckey. This is often how Towson students find their ways to presses and publishers like Yellow Arrow Publishing! Stuckey and many other faculty members always go above and beyond to get students in touch with possible employers they know that could help during or after our college careers.
For English majors interested in working in the Baltimore area specifically, advisors have found students internships with Yellow Arrow, Mason Jar Press, BrickHouse Books, Baltimore Review, Baltimore Magazine, and Bancroft Press. While I spent my official internship with Grub Street, the unofficial internships I participated in after graduation with Yellow Arrow Publishing and Mason Jar Press also helped me pursue my career and brought me closer to my goals. Everyone has been so welcoming and helpful to get me started down my career path and gain knowledge about the editing field. My internship with Grub Street was also a significant jumping-off point; the experience I gathered there easily translated over to my future work. With all of them combined, I’ve learned so much about not only the editing process but the importance of independent publishers and presses and how they provide support and community to up-and-coming authors. It’s given me direction, opportunity, and motivation to become part of the editing and publishing process after such engaging experiences with them. I greatly appreciate being welcomed so warmly, supported so generously, and guided so carefully by Towson and the internships as I get started toward my new goal.
Brenna Ebner is a recent Towson University graduate and Editor-in-Chief of Grub Street Literary Magazine, volume 69. She has interned at both Mason Jar Press and Yellow Arrow Publishing and is looking forward to continuing to grow as an editor and establish herself in the publishing world.
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Yellow Arrow Publishing is a nonprofit supporting women writers through publication and access to the literary arts. To learn more about publishing, volunteering, or donating, visit yellowarrowpublishing.com.