By PFM Managing Editor Shawn Raymundo
The newsroom of Picket Fence Media has been abuzz with plenty of energy these past several weeks, thanks in large part to our wonderful team of summer interns who have contributed to our long-standing tradition of providing excellent news coverage here in South Orange County.
Every year, we offer internship opportunities to the area’s young, aspiring journalists, exposing them to a working newsroom and helping them sharpen their reporting skills in writing, interviewing and photography.
This year’s class of interns has proven to be exceptional and hard-working while dedicated to producing quality journalism, in turn helping us here at PFM bring readers more coverage of Dana Point, San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano.
Many readers may have already noticed a couple of new bylines on our stories from Hayze Law and Keaton Larson, but allow me to formally introduce them.
Law, a San Clemente resident, has been our primary reporting intern for the summer, filing news briefs, taking on some feature stories, covering breaking news and supporting some of our enterprise projects by poring over documents.
In pursuit of a Bachelor’s in Journalism degree from California State University, Long Beach, Hayze has worked as a staff writer at her previous school’s newspaper, The Channels, at Santa Barbara City College, and interned for a marketing role with the educational nonprofit Livnot U’Lehibanot in Israel.
Larson, who graduated from UCLA in 2021 with a degree in English, was most recently a fellow with the Los Angeles Review of Books Publishing Workshop and an intern for Rep. Mike Levin’s office.
After spending two years as a writer and photographer with UCLA’s student-run newspaper, The Daily Bruin, Keaton has put that experience to great use with us, particularly supporting the reporting staff through photo assignments and capturing images for the papers’ covers.
Lastly, one intern whose name readers haven’t had the pleasure of seeing this summer until now is Tiana Baird, a senior at the University of San Diego, where she’s earning a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration in Marketing.
During her time in the newsroom, Baird, our digital intern, has led our efforts to have a more robust presence on social media, managing our Facebook, Instagram and Twitter posts, in addition to posting stories to our websites and putting together our daily email blasts.
Tiana’s previous professional experience includes a marketing position with San Clemente-based Blazonco and an internship role as project manager for Asian Pacific Islander and American Public Affairs.
This bright and energetic group of interns has made a tremendous contribution to PFM all summer, and I look forward to seeing them advance into the next stage of their professional careers.
As their time with us begins to wind down, please join me in wishing them the best in all of their future endeavors.
Shawn Raymundo
Shawn Raymundo is the managing editor for Picket Fence Media. He graduated from Arizona State University with a bachelor’s degree in Global Studies. Before joining Picket Fence Media, he worked as the government accountability reporter for the Pacific Daily News in the U.S. territory of Guam. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnzyTsunami and follow San Clemente Times @SCTimesNews.
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