White joins Herald as intern
Courtesy photo Rebecca White, a WSU student from Dayton, will cover Olympia for the Herald over the next few months.
MOSES LAKE — Rebecca White has always been obsessed with writing.
“I’m really into reading and writing,” White said. “I really like journalism more then a normal amount.”
The 20-year-old White, who is majoring in communications and minoring in political science at Washington State University, has joined the Columbia Basin Herald for the next five months as our intern reporter on the ground in Olympia, covering the comings and going of the governor and the state legislature.
“I will be here until May, when the semester is over, going to hearings, checking out what the governor is doing, following the legislature,” she said.
“I like the real impact that political reporting has on the lives of people,” White said in a phone conversation from Olympia. “I feel like it directly serves democracy by keeping people informed.”
White grew up in Dayton, Wash., where she was homeschooled until she reached high school age, when she attended the district’s alternative high school, which happened to be located at a community college. This allowed her to keep working past high school and earn an associate’s degree when she was 19.
“My mom started homeschooling me because my brother was on a different school schedule, and it was just easier to homeschool all five siblings. We kept doing it until I was in high school,” she said.
College has really curtailed her hobbies and outside interests, White said, though she still writes poetry and hopes to take advantage of her time in the state capital.
“I like to go to bookstores, and my goal is to visit every coffee shop in Olympia,” she said. “I really like coffee.”
White isn’t sure exactly what she wants to do when she graduates from WSU, but she’s fairly certain her time with the Columbia Basin Herald in Olympia will help point her in the right direction.
“I’m not 100 percent sure, but I definitely want to look at journalism that deals with public affairs,” she said.
Charles H. Featherstone can be reached via email at countygvt@columbiabasinherald.com.