Graham and Parks students spend a week with the Harvard News Office

By Ben Somberg and Emily Shewchuk

Special to the Gazette

Emily: 'Office' . . . The word kept echoing in my mind. Why can't I do something fun like everybody else? What is the Harvard News Office anyway?

Ben: When I first heard I was going to a news office, I didn't know what it was. I figured all I was going to be doing was boring paperwork. But there were a lot of things I didn't know.

When we walked in on Monday morning, we were greeted by many welcome smiles. We met our supervisor, John Lenger. He took us around and introduced us to everyone in the office. Everyone was much nicer than we expected.

We went to the Harvard News Office for a week as part of a project for our school, Graham & Parks. Our teachers wanted us to find out what Cambridge, and specifically this site, was like 100 years ago. We handed out a survey to most of the people at the office, to see what kind of people work in Cambridge these days. We also interviewed two employees, Susan Peterson and John Lenger, to get a perspective on what people do here and how they feel about their jobs.

While we were at the office, we did all sorts of things. We helped format pages of the newspaper with designer Megan Hanna. We proofread parts of the newspaper to make sure they were correct.

Wednesday was production day, the time when the newspaper is compiled and the final corrections are made. The three pizzas that arrived that afternoon helped to calm everyone's nerves. When we left that day, we could see that there was still a lot more to be done. Everyone seemed a little less tense after the newspaper was put out the next day.

On Thursday, we went with Jane Reed and Kris Snibbe to a photo shoot. The Harvard Police were giving the State Police two bikes. We met the Harvard police chief, Bud Riley. When we finished taking pictures, we went back to the photo lab in a patrol car and . . . had pizza! Then we developed the photos. Kris was very excited because he had just received his new Leica camera. We were there to witness this important event in history.

We had a great time spending a week at the Harvard News Office. We learned how a newspaper is made, and how all the people work together to make it come out right. The people who work there are all friendly and made us feel very welcome. From this experience, we learned a lot about what it's like to work in Cambridge.