My experience working at the Lehigh Valley Press this summer has shown me a different perspective on journalism.

In my freshman year at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., I took a class about journalism in the media.

This mainly consisted of watching movies about journalists and analyzing how popular culture views those working in the media.

We watched the classics: "All the President's Men," "Citizen Kane," "House of Cards" and others.

The movie leaving the biggest impression on me was "His Girl Friday," a 1940 film about a reporter, Hildy Johnson, trying to quit her job to marry a dull insurance agent, become a mother and "be a real person," as opposed to a bloodthirsty journalist.

Her conniving editor and ex-husband entices her to do one last story and she realizes her journalistic addiction to getting the scoop outweighs her desire to become a housewife.

With this kind of perspective in mind, I later became a reporter and then an editor at The GW Hatchet, the independent student newspaper at my school.

Since then, I have made my job there a priority in my life and overwhelmed myself with reporting and writing for the paper.

I wrote stories for the Hatchet about neighbors to the GW campus and local government meetings. I have always had a passion for journalism because it connects me to my community.

My experience writing about my college community prepared me very well for writing about the communities the various weekly papers of the Lehigh Valley Press cover.

As an Allentown resident who became a reporter in D.C., I have a background in writing for the Hatchet about a community of which I only recently became a part.

At the Lehigh Valley Press, I had a wonderful experience writing about stories in the Lehigh Valley and it has been so special to me to engage with my own community.

I think reading about the positive influences – the good aspects of smaller communities – gives the reader an inclination to join the cause and do things to help the community.

I know as I read through articles in the weekly papers about local families in need or volunteer opportunities, I think of ways I could help with the causes and I feel positively influenced.

As a writer for the Lehigh Valley Press, I have noticed my own articles making a difference in the community.

My Fighting Hunger series in the Whitehall-Coplay Press this summer led concerned community members to contact me to help with the initiative and it is very rewarding to know my work may be helping improve the lives for the people in the area.

The weekly newspapers are the heartbeat of the community they serve. They invite residents to become engaged and to see the positive influence community members can make.

As many of the writers for these papers are part of the communities they cover, they, as good neighbors, want their stories to make their community a better place, instead of seeking the glory of coming up with the juiciest story first.

My time at the Lehigh Valley Press has shown me what Hildy Johnson would call the "real person" side of journalism, a side that emphasizes the people instead of the stories.

This summer has shown me reporters can love their jobs and still maintain a passion for the people he or she writes about.

Robin Eberhardt

Lehigh Valley Press intern