Jonna Langston, a sophomore transfer student from Lusk, Wyo., has been selected by MTV News as South Dakota’s student correspondent. She is one of the 50 college students around the nation chosen to report on the issues in the upcoming election concerning students in higher education.

While it can easily be confused as an internship, it is a paying job for the selected students. MTV News gives each person a personal page on www.think.mtv.com and they are required to post either one article or one video a week discussing an issue relevant to the presidential election and the state each student represents. The position lasts from January until election night.
“I heard about it from Dr. Rosser in her basic newswriting class, “explains Langston. “All it was was going online and filling out an application and the only requirement I needed was to be a college student.”

The suspense was short-lived after the application process.
“About two weeks later I found out I was one of the three finalists for the state of South Dakota and then I had to submit video talking about a political or social issue in the state,” says Langston. “I sat down at my computer with all this footage I got of the campus and interviews and thought ‘how am I going to make this a four-minute video?’”

After she submitted her video clip to MTV, Langston learned she was chosen as South Dakota’s representative at the end of November. Until MTV officially released the information, Langston had to keep a lid on the details.

“I’m excited! I’m so excited about this. I wouldn’t say I’m not nervous, but it’s a great opportunity. I’m really lucky to have this,” says Langston. 

She is going to be heading to New York during Christmas break to rendezvous with other students around the nation chosen for this position. “We get to meet all the representatives from the other states and we get all our equipment, find out how to use it and meet with all the head people at MTV,” elaborates Langston.
MTV is supplying each student with a video camera, a laptop and the video editing software needed to create the news clips. Each student’s work will be uploaded to their individual pages on the website, but if there is something that stands out, MTV will put that piece of news on the airwaves of MTV News.
She will still be a full-time student and hold a work-study position at the university while reporting for MTV. She is making exceptions in her schedule to leave time in her busy schedule. She pared down her credits to a total of twelve and is making arrangements with her teachers so she will be able to travel to the other side of the state and get different viewpoints on the issues at hand.

Her travels and reporting will begin mid January. To find more information on this position, visit www.think.mtv.com where Langston will soon have a page of her own.