Rising J-student passes up big cities to intern at hometown paper: 'You feel like you need to serve your local community'

Nash Weiss (Journal Sentinel photo by Bill Glauber)

Nash Weiss, 21-year-old journalism student, "probably could have had his pick of internships after recently completing one with NBC-TV," Bill Glauber writes for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. So why is he editing his hometown's weekly newspaper?

"You feel like you need to serve your local community," Weiss told Glauber in the office of the Mondovi Herald-News, circulation 3,000. "I grew up here, I care about the community, I always will. This is the way I could give back."

The paper's editor, Beth Kraft, is on maternity leave for the summer. That left a big hole, because there are two other employees, ad salesman Patrick Milliren and 49-year-employee Bobbi Tiegs, a graphic designer, typesetter and copy reader.

Map adapted from Sperling's Best Places

Weiss is a rising senior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He's doing the usual summer stories about fairs and other events, "but he's also written some fascinating human interest stories, including one on a local couple reunited with the son they gave up for adoption 45 years ago," Glauber reports. "Weiss admired the couple's willingness to come forward, especially in such small a community."

"It's sometimes an ethical dilemma being with a small-town newspaper," he told Glauber, who notes, "Weiss' first cousin is Mondovi's mayor. He's also related to the previous mayor."

"Tiegs has known Weiss his whole life and is proud he returned home," Glauber writes. "As they sat and talked one day, Tiegs turned to Weiss and told him: 'Nash, you have really come in and stepped up.'"