Piper Pascarella interned with CNN’s Inside Politics Sunday team in Washington, D.C., where she worked in a fast-paced newsroom covering major national and international breaking news. The experience strengthened her reporting skills and reinforced her passion for political journalism as she prepares to complete her senior year at the University of Illinois.
180,000+ applicants.
350+ WBD interns
60 CNN interns
8 DC interns
1 Inside Politics Sunday intern.
This summer, I’ve had the absolute honor of being that one.
I sent in my application with absolutely no expectations of hearing back. The portal opened just days after I received a crushing rejection from NBC in Chicago. I was so sure I had it in the bag, and then it was a no, and I. Was. Devastated.
If NBC in Chicago was out of reach, where the biggest competitors were the Medill students at Northwestern, surely CNN in DC was out of reach, too, where now I’m against every single Ivy, Mizzou, Arizona, International students, and now, also the top political students, not just the journalism majors. The Political unit received thousands and thousands of applicants. In my mind, there was no way I’d come out on top.
I’ve always been someone who struggles with impostor syndrome. I’ve had many successes in my time at the University of Illinois, but most of them I’ve received under the impression that someone, somewhere, made a terrible mistake and I needed to work harder than everyone else there to stay afloat and earn the spot I had already been given. Like a pig in makeup, I felt like I had done a really good job of convincing people I was a good journalist.
Every round of the application and interview process, I turned in my submissions, almost laughing to myself, thinking, “whatever, not like it’s gonna happen anyway.” When I finally heard from my now-supervisor, I freaked out. Firstly, because I’d missed the email for several days because I had been out reporting with no service in a west african chimpanzee sanctuary. But secondly, I couldn’t believe I heard back in general. I responded, apologized profusely for my silence, and begged to speak again the next week when I wouldn’t need to climb to the top of a cell tower to have any internet connection. Thank God my supervisor, Ben Gittleson, was nice enough to let me do it.
Then, Warner Bros. Discovery called me back and told me I got the job. It took some time for it to finally set in, but I quickly snapped into reality when the headlines started pouring in at a rate I had never expected.
My first day? Musk and Trump start feuding.
Then Trump deployed the National Guard to California overnight.
The next week, Israel strikes Iran.
Then two Minnesota lawmakers and their spouses are shot.
Then Trump throws his military parade as protesters nationwide flood the streets.
Then the U.S. joins the conflict and strikes Iranian nuclear facilities.
Then floods devastate Texas.
My running joke with the team is that I’m a newsroom bad luck charm. The second I started, it was nonstop breaking news. And every week someone would reassure me, “I promise you, it’s not usually this crazy.” Then it would only get crazier.
It is unbelievable to me that I now live in a world where Donald J. Trump single-handedly causes me to work late the morning of my 21st birthday. Where I overhear my roommates trying to make brunch plans saying, “Yeah, Piper will probably be off around 9:30…Unless we go to war with Iran. Then she’ll be off by like 12:30”
But, somehow, that has been my life for the past 10 weeks!
I’m so grateful for what I’ve learned at my time here at CNN. I only have a few weeks left before starting my senior year at UIUC, and I am proud to leave here with such an incredible experience. Ready to finish strong!
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