PHOTO VIA Matthew Betti

Mounds View alum Maya Betti at her internship

Two years ago, Mounds View alum Maya Betti led the school newspaper, The Viewer, as Editor-in-Chief. Since graduating in 2023, Betti has been busy continuing with journalism. Between editing the news section of St. Olaf’s weekly newspaper, the Olaf Messenger, and collecting multiple internships over the summer, her impact has spread beyond Mounds View as she builds up her portfolio. 

Although Betti spent a few years working on The Viewer, writing for a paper in college is a lot more serious and more difficult. While The Viewer gave her monthly deadlines for each issue, college newspapers are more time demanding. “You have a tighter turn around, that’s for sure. Most colleges have weeklies or dailies. There’s not gonna be a lot of monthlies,” said Betti. “It’s competitive. We’re not guaranteed a position, especially for schools that have [journalism] schools. You oftentimes intern for the student newspaper before you’re granted a position.”

Beyond these differences, Betti still retains some important skills she learned from her high school newspaper. “I think the one thing I learned at The Viewer is how to ask a good question, and I think having that skill is super helpful in journalism, but it’s just helpful in really any other job imaginable. I think the skills of being a good writer and knowing how to posit things in a concise and clear way helped me with my [summer] internship.”

Last summer, Betti had an internship with the Park Bugle where she wrote mostly feature articles. She found it by cross-referencing internship programs with grants and newspapers and from there just reaching out. “It was a really good chance to get that on-the-ground reporting, like being at events and covering them there and getting quotes all within the event. It’s a lot different than when you’re at school, and you can email faculty members or other students, and you know you’re gonna get a response, and you know that, to some extent, most people are willing to interview with you.” Being off campus, she sometimes had trouble interviewing people at events. 

Betti also had a communications internship with Governor Walz’s office last summer, where she worked on his social media presence and writing speeches. “Me and the other intern did a lot of his social. We took over his Instagram. I also attended press events. There were many, of course, and then [I] helped media set up, stuff like that. [We did] a lot of press releases just about new bills that had been passed or events that were going to be held. [I did] rankings of Minnesota, like if we ranked number one in health care for 2024, I would craft a press release, and then also talking points, which is like speeches that the governor gives at local events.”

However, she found multiple challenges when writing about the events the governor attended. “Making sure you’re aware of all the details that would go into [writing speeches], like who to thank, what to thank them about, and also what the event is itself and you gotta have it in the governor’s voice.” She traveled around Minnesota with him, going to Mankato for an event. 

Out of many stories written, Betti’s favorite was one where she got to connect with her community. “My favorite story would be, last year I covered — Northfield has a really iconic slogan called ‘Cows, colleges and contentment,’ and last year they switched out the last part of it to ‘community’ —
and I covered community reaction to that. And also I was able to get an interview with the mayor and some council members, and then I got this really cool interview from the grandson of the person who made the original slogan. It was just a really good community moment, and it made me feel really connected to the Northfield community specifically as a freshman,” she said. 

While Betti decides whether to go into journalism after college, she does not regret her decision to get involved in news writing during high school and college. “I think it is just a really great way, even if you don’t plan on using it as your professional career, [to] just build those critical writing skills that you use in nearly any subject in any job,” she said.