Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication

College of Liberal Arts & Sciences

Meredith Apprentice Program

The Greenlee School has a unique connection with Meredith Corporation. Every year, five Journalism and Mass Communication majors are selected to work for an entire academic year as apprentices on Meredith Corporation magazines likes Better Homes and Gardens and Diabetic Living. Students travel to Des Moines two or three days each week to research, write, edit and fact check magazine articles. They attend editorial planning meetings, photo shoots and even food taste panels.

Devon O'Brien pins up print outs of an upcoming issue of Kraft Food & Family for final review. As a Meredith Apprentice, she looks at color scheme and flow of the magazine and to make sure everything looks perfect before it goes to print. O'Brien spends the rest of her time helping at photo shoots, researching, writing stories, and working with the interactive team to get out weekly emails called RBE's (Recipes by Email).

"My experience with the apprenticeship has been really beneficial. Just being a part of a national magazine editorial staff is so fascinating. It's entirely different from working for a student publication and I think participating in the program has taught me a lot about myself and what type of publication I want to work for someday. Plus I got a lot of clips, met so many great people and did a lot of networking. If college had a re-do button, I would include my apprenticeship in my experience every single time." -Devon O'Brien

Meredith Apprentices share a cubicle with another temporary employee. Here Sarah Binder works to organize her cubicle. "Sharing a cubicle with another temp can get crowded, but it was definitely a helpful experience--I always had someone there to answer my questions, from the silly first-day stuff to brainstorming through a tough problem," Binder said.

"I'd definitely say being a part of the Meredith Apprentice Program was a very educational experience.I learned a lot about writing and magazine work in general from interacting with the different editors. My previous internships and experiences were mainly with newspapers and all at much smaller companies, so working for this huge magazine publisher was a complete change of pace--if nothing else, now I can say I know what it's like to work for Meredith." - Sarah Binder

Meredith Apprentices are given freedom not found at all internships. Here, Chelsea Evers looks at the most recent shot from the Storage Fall/Winter products shoot, which she produced and helped style on-set.

"I'm definitely better prepared for the job search because of the Meredith program. I don't actually feel like it was an internship at all—I was given so much responsibility and freedom, it felt more like an entry-level editor position. I'm staying on as a contributing editor through the summer, and I'm already gaining even more experience." - Chelsea Evers