Many Carleton students spend their summers as interns, but Zoe Schwartz ’08 (New York, New York) may have had one of the most fast-paced internships. She got her taste of the real world last summer working as a production assistant for the ABC news show “20/20” in New York.

In the John Stossel unit at “20/20,” Schwartz worked with producers, editors and the anchor to produce a one-hour special on stereotypes, which aired September 15. Her job included researching various stereotypes, contacting potential guests to interview, creating and editing clip reels, and writing scripts.

While juggling all these tasks, Schwartz learned how much work was involved in every bit of newscast. For example, to introduce the idea of how people distinguish each other by physical differences, the producers decided to use images of animals. To secure this 10-second footage, Schwartz and her producers had to contact National Geographic for video resources, get authorization from the ABC legal department to arrange the rights, select the animals, ask for the anchor to approval the footage, and provide the technical support to download the footage.

In other words, the real work is anything but glamorous, says Schwartz, and requires a lot of persistence, as well as a talent for translating information into an accessible format.

A junior majoring in international relations, Schwartz developed her interest in media at Carleton, where she has been a staff writer and an editor for the Carletonian. She also works at the Presentation, Events, and Production department, serving as videographer for Carleton men’s basketball games.

Schwartz learned about the 20/20 opportunity from the Career Center and got interviewing advice from a Carleton alumnus who works as an ABC producer.