Medill News Service in Washington, D.C.

As a reporter for Medill News Service, Capitol Hill is your office. Witness House and Senate proceedings, meet with congressmen and senators in their offices and allow the helpful librarians at the Senate Library to assist you as you research the important events or issues that -- until you file your story -- you are one of the few to know.

You are surrounded by the bustle of journalists at work. Laptop computers, ringing telephones and Senate Press Gallery staff add to the constant hum of events around you distilled into the news about to appear on television and radio, newsprint and websites around the world.

As you ascend the marble staircases, the halls of power echo your footfalls. You glide past velveteen ropes holding back tourists as a uniformed guard glances at your credentials and waves you past the metal detector into one of the press galleries.

During the 11-week quarter, every Medill News Service journalist becomes a Washington correspondent for a local news outlet. They cover breaking news as-well-as in-depth, enterprise stories on politics, civil rights, energy, technology or education. Medill journalists attend congressional proceedings, press conferences, conventions and congressional hearings and connect those stories to the communities they cover -- not an insider audience.

Newspaper and Web site reporters use digital cameras and laptop computers in their newsgathering efforts. Broadcast reporters shoot on DVC Pro video cameras and have access to both digital and analog linear and nonlinear editing equipment.

The Medill News Service serves 18 newspapers, five Web sites, nine television stations and eight radio stations, which all pay a quarterly fee to help cover production and communications costs. Print correspondents transmit stories electronically every day. Television stories are sent by network feed or satellite, or shipped overnight, as each station requires.

Each quarter, Medill reporters receive training in computer-assisted reporting from faculty as-well-as investigative reporters and use those skills to produce in-depth news packages for their clients.

During weekly seminars, experts newsmakers and professional journalists meet with reporters, sharing insights only seasoned pros learn working in Washington.

Reporters produce "Medill Journal," a laboratory television news program with Medill reporters appearing on camera and also working behind the scenes.

Medill has also secured grants to produce special long-term investigative projects such as the "Y-Vote" series.

And Medill reporters also show their new media skills by producing this Web site!