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 By Melissa Barber |
You wake up on a beautiful October day. You have two choices:
UNI alumnus Mark Steines had no problem choosing option 2. “I had to e-mail Teri and tell her I couldn’t make it,” he said with a chuckle. The host of Entertainment Tonight and a two-time Emmy award-winning journalist, Steines received his B.A. in Communications from UNI in 1986. “I think UNI has a very great feel to it,” Steines explained. “Communication Studies is not the same as it was when I was here. And that’s good, because when we started we didn’t have so much. But it has come so far and that is such a positive thing. People care enough to actually invest in this.” 
Putting his money where his mouth is, Steines has offered a full-time internship for one lucky UNI student at Entertainment Tonight all summer long. And not just any internship, but a full dose of reality in the entertainment world. “This internship will not be in the vault erasing tapes and logging stuff. This internship will be Mark and mini-Mark,” he says with a smile. “They will go with me to every shoot I go on, from voice-over stuff to the hair and make-up team that we work with. They’ll know how a show like ET is put together top to bottom and the blood, sweat and tears that happen every single day. The day will start at 5 a.m. for them and they will be there every day. A lot of internships are Monday, Wednesday, Friday. This is going to be Monday through Friday, and if I’m working a weekend, they’re going to be there with me. But I want them to know what it’s like, the reality that “here you go, you’re a senior, step onto that train that’s moving at a hundred miles an hour.” It makes me proud to be from a school where the alumni remember how they got their start and show appreciation for the education they have received.
After interviewing four finalists, Steines made his choice: Erin Therese Maxson, a senior digital communications and multimedia major from Decorah, Iowa. “I am so very excited for this internship,” she said. “It makes me proud to be from a school where the alumni remember how they got their start and show appreciation for the education they have received. I feel so blessed for the opportunity to go to L.A. and learn from someone who still holds Midwestern values. Something that many people overlook in the college experience is the need for mentorship. It says a lot about UNI as an institution when the alumni want to take the time to mentor the current students.” |
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