The summer internships are underway – and more CUNY J-Schoolers than ever have gone abroad for the required eight weeks of work in the journalism profession. Some are ensconced with familiar media partners, others are breaking new ground. As in past years, all J-School interns are guaranteed a minimum stipend of $3,000 for the summer.

Students landed 15 international internships this year, up from 8 in 2009, said Career Services Director Will Chang. One reason: 20 students chose the J-School’s international track in the Class of 2010, compared with 13 in the ’09 year, the first it was offered. These students are required to do their internships in another country, at the United Nations, or in Washington covering foreign policy.

The new foreign placements include the Seoul Bureau of the Associated Press; Dow Jones’ Santiago bureau; South Africa’s Mail & Guardian in Johannesburg; A24 Media, a Nairobi-based Web aggregator of African news; the International Media Institute of India, located near New Delhi; and the Thailand news-gathering operation of Mizzima News. The School is also sending students back to some familiar overseas outlets, among them Thomson Reuters in Brussels and AP-Moscow.

This summer’s domestic internships, too, are more far-flung than usual. WUOT Radio in Knoxville is a first-time partner, as is The Oregonian in Portland. “More people are willing to leave the New York area, which is a good thing,” Chang says, and not just for the interns. “It helps to spread the reputation of the School.”

Back in media-rich New York City – still the most popular internship location – CUNY students are helping that reputation grow locally. Some first-time internship partners include Metrofocus, a new program on public TV’s WNET; WNYC-FM’s Radiolab; and DNAinfo.com, an urban news site. Others in the 76-member Class of ‘10 are interning where the reputation is already solid. Among the repeat destinations: Bloomberg BusinessWeek, City Hall, NY Press, New York Daily News, WNYC’s “Brian Lehrer Show,” the investigative unit of ABC News, and NY1.

“The CUNY interns have been some of the brightest, most able, and dedicated of [our] student journalists,” said Brian Ross, chief investigative correspondent at ABC News.

At NY1, Bernadine Han, vice-president for news, said she finds the School’s diverse student body a major draw. “My goal is to staff a newsroom that reflects the makeup of the city,” she said. Another reason she values CUNY J-Schoolers: “They understand what issues resonate with New Yorkers.”

Tags: Career Services Internships, CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, international internships, journalism internships, journalism schools