Year 10 Mount Gambier High School student Peta Polgreen spent a week undertaking work experience at The SE Voice office.

We asked her to report in on what she achieved during the week:

Over the past week I got to step behind the scenes of The SE Voice for my Year 10 work experience.

I have always been interested in reading and writing, so when I got the news saying I would be able to come in for the week, I was ecstatic.

In the last week I have learnt so much about the work required to put out a bi-weekly newspaper while I was in the office.

I started the week by meeting The SE Voice cadet journalist Brandi Miller, who showed me how she works on various stories and reports using reliable contacts and first-hand stories.

We looked over some of the sports write-ups and I learnt how to write an article in tandem with a recorded interview.

On Tuesday we left the office for my first in-person interview with the owner of Metro Bakery and Café Toni Vorenas, which then turned into the front page story for Thursday’s edition.

I really loved this because I could see how journalists like Brandi complete and share the story that is being told to us in real-time.

Listening back to the interview, I lit up finding quotes that were relevant to the story and placing them in the correct place.

The end of the week arrived way too quickly.

I spent the morning writing captions for the upcoming Book Week picture page before we transitioned out of the office to do more interviews and take photos.

In my week at The SE Voice I have had a blast no matter what we had to do.

The team was super friendly and that made it easy to ask questions and learn during my week.

I have always wanted to do something in the writing industry and I can now see a job I could work at as I go through the rest of my schooling.