As the school year comes to an end and graduation season is in full swing, I want to take a moment to brag.

I’m not bragging about anything we are doing, rather, what a couple of our bright young minds have been doing with us.

Last summer, we had an “intern” for the first time. Natalie Crumpler, a 2024 Exeter graduate, approached us in her first summer out of college and wanted to get a feel for what it was like to work at a small-town community newspaper.

Completely on a volunteer basis, she shadowed me for a couple weeks as I did my various tasks from reporting to photography to design. Ultimately, she found design to be her niche, and after a few days of training, she took our templates and used InDesign to put together two of our Monett Monthly editions.

For being with us only a few hours a day and only a couple months, I was impressed how quickly she was able to pick up the program and —with very few edits — put together an 8-page newspaper.

We didn’t do enough to brag about Natalie’s contributions last year, but better late than never I suppose.

Fast forward a few months and we got a call from the Cassville High School counselors. A senior at Cassville wanted to utilize a new internship program offered by the district to work for us for a semester.

In January, Gwendylan Harmon began a four-month-long internship with us, and once again, I was impressed with how quickly she was able to pick up and run with whatever was thrown at her.

When Gwen came in, her initial interest was public relations and marketing. For that focus, ad sales seemed like a natural fit. With some shadowing and training, she helped to sell a few of our projects at the start of the year, however, sales turned out to be her bag.

About the time she realized sales wasn’t quite what she thought it would be, she toured and was accepted to the journalism school at the University of Missouri.

“Impressed” isn’t even strong enough a word to describe how significant an accomplishment that is. The “J School” is one of the premier journalism schools in the country and is highly competitive. It’s a higher honor than I think most people she told even realized, but the accomplishment was not lost on me.

After that trip and acceptance, the goal was clear — reporting and photography were the new focuses.

Gwen took that ball and ran with it full speed. Her first photo opp was Cassville’s Tip-Off, she may have been shadowing me that day, but her crowning photos were both better than mine, so I ran them.

In March she wrote stories on scholarship opportunities for local seniors, the renovation at Mercy Hospital in Cassville, the changing of ownership of Sportsman’s Corner, the future plans for the pedestrian bridge in Cassville, the bid awarded for the fireworks show during Trout Fest, the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s drug awareness presentation at the high school and the annual Poetry Day at Crowder Cassville.

She’s done nearly as many photo packages over the last two months, as well, and she’s done so well at all of it, we offered to keep her on staff over the summer as a stringer so she can continue building her portfolio and gaining experience.

Most students entering the J School will have worked for their high school papers or done yearbook, but how many can say they have multiple stories published in an award-winning weekly community newspaper?

Gwen can.

It has been an honor to be able to afford that opportunity, and just as much of an honor to change her byline from Cassville Democrat Intern to what all our other stringers have — “Special to the Cassville Democrat.”

If any businesses out there are approached by the school to offer an internship to a Cassville senior, I strongly encourage you to take it.

If our experience is any gauge, you won’t regret adding a bright mind to your ranks, and you won’t regret doing your best to nurture it.

Kyle Troutman has served as editor of the Cassville Democrat since 2014 and owner/publisher since 2023. He is a three-time ISWNE Golden Dozen award winner. He may be reached at 417-847-2610 or [email protected].