by Jennifer Schneider
Staff Writer
Hard work and devotion have paid off for Appalachian State University
senior electronic and media broadcast major Charlotte M. Langley.
Last week, Langley made it to national television on the weeklong
special “The Intern” on NBC’s morning show, “Today.”
Modeled after NBC’s “The Apprentice,” the program
gave eight NBC interns a variety of producer-related tasks. Each
morning the interns would be evaluated and one intern would be “fired”
until there were four interns remaining.
“The whole week was exhausting but very worth it,” Langley
said.
Her favorite task was when the teams were assigned to “use
New York.” The teams were given 15 minutes to come up with
a plan and three hours to go out into the city and find a story
that they could do a 30- to 45-second clip on.
Langley’s team, which by Thursday had been cut to only two
people, originally wanted to do a story on the New York subway.
“We were going to call it ‘The Real New York: Life under
the City’.” Langley said. “It was going to be
about the art, music and life that occurs under the city.”
The team hit a roadblock, though, when they found out that they
could not tape on the subway. The team then had to take its crew
into the streets of New York without a plan and search for a story.
As they were standing in Rockefeller Center, two men with guide
dogs passed them.
“I just told my partner to go get them,” Langley said.
The men the team stopped trained guide dogs for the blind. Langley
and her team interviewed the two men, edited their piece and presented
it live on “Today” against the other team who presented
a story on Zambonies.
“Their story had a few problems, so we won,” Langley
said.
The four remaining interns were given two tickets to see “The
Producers” and the opportunity to shadow one of the anchors.
Langley was chosen to work with Katie Couric.
“I went with her to do a speech at Columbia,” Langley
said. “I got to learn about her story. She is really personable
and friendly.”
This week Langley will continue to work with Couric.
“She has an interview with Aerosmith, so we are hoping that
I can shadow her that day,” Langley said.
Langley, who has wanted to work in film and television since she
was 4 years old, has worked hard to get where she is today.
“She is spunky and extremely self-motivated,” assistant
professor in the communication department Dr. Janice T. Pope said.
“I have the personality that once I get set on something,
I get stuck on it,” Langley said.
“She has done a couple of internships,” communications
associate professor Dr. David Spiceland said. “It gets you
a lot of experience.”
Langley interns for both NBC and MTV. She works on shows like Carson
Daily’s Last Call, Cribs and Diary Pope said.
“The biggest challenge with NBC was getting in the door. Once
you make it in then you can get lost in the building and meet people,”
Langley said.
She said the best thing about internships is that you can find out
what you do not want to do. Although she would love to either be
in front of the camera or produce, her dream job is to be a writer
and actor for Saturday Night Live.
“The future looks good for her,” Pope said. “She
has obviously made a name for herself. It is a good lesson for all
students to go for what you want. She is on the road and it will
take her wherever she wants to go.”
“She is an overall good student,” Spiceland said. “More
power to her.”
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