(Editor’s Note: This is the 12th in a series of stories about internships being completed by students in the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications.)

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Sometimes at a council meeting or a planning meeting or a township meeting, Arianna Eichhof would be the only person in attendance. That’s OK, she said, that’s the whole point of her job as a documenter.

The Saint Paul, Minnesota, native spent much of the past year immersing herself in journalism. A part of that was joining Documenters, a national program that trains residents of communities to attend public meetings and publish the results. Eichhof was part of the first cohort of Centre Documenters, which covers the State College, Pennsylvania, area and is run by the News Lab housed in the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications.

She heard about the opportunity from Maggie Messitt, the Norman Eberly Professor of Practice and director of the News Lab. Messitt taught Eichhof’s introductory news writing course.

“Last fall, Maggie mentioned that she was getting this program started and I thought it could be a cool experience,” Eichhof said. “It’s the basics. We go into council meetings and take notes. We share them with community members. We hold representatives accountable.”

It was the perfect opportunity for a young journalist, she said. First, documenters check if meetings are actually happening. If they are, documenters attend, summarize discussions and pull highlights. Their work is made available to news outlets and the public on the program’s website. Documenters choose meetings that fit their schedule and interests, and they are paid for their time.

“Sometimes [the people running the meeting] are surprised to see us,” Eichhof said. “They are not used to people caring so much, especially young people. A lot of times, they’ll ask, ‘Why are you here?’”

There have been highs — Eichhof particularly enjoyed covering State College Borough’s meeting on Black History Month and related activities — and lows — a meeting 30 minutes away that lasted seven minutes — but she said the experience was invaluable.

When the spring semester ended, Eichhof looked to continue documenting through the summer. She asked Messitt if she had a contact at Minneapolis Documenters, and Messitt connected her with the editor there, Jackie Renzetti.

“It was so exciting to work with a documenter from another part of the country,” Renzetti said. “Arianna jumped right into covering Minneapolis local government, providing clear and concise summaries of civil rights commission and city council meetings.”

Renzetti’s Documenters program is a little different. It is not affiliated with a university, so most of its 70 documenters are not students. However, Renzetti said they all share the same goal.

“The Documenters programs are all about democratizing the tools of journalism,” she said. “Journalists are trained in deep listening to diverse perspectives, navigating complex systems and verifying information. It's designed to be an accessible, low-pressure way to learn foundational journalistic skills.”

Eichhof was excited to join the Minneapolis crew, and because of her experience in Happy Valley, she was able to skip the training and start immediately. She enjoyed a new perspective on local government, especially seeing how discussions continued, and plans advanced from one meeting to the next.

“From June to July, the same meeting, it was pretty cool to see how the things they were talking about in the first meeting progressed,” she said. “And they all recognized me … especially because I was the only audience member in the room. Both times.”

Documenters wasn’t the only part of Eichhof’s year in journalism. With the News Lab, she participated in Maymester in Washington, D.C. Messitt took a small group of students to the nation’s capital to report on housing and food insecurity. Eichhof said it was the first time she did actual reporting outside of school.

“I talked to a women’s shelter and learned what it was like. We went out on Memorial Day to the National Mall and interviewed people from all over the country,” she said. “I had done some Zoom interviews, but this was the first time out in public walking up to strangers with a microphone.”

Jumping into the unknown is not new for Eichhof. When graduating high school, she had one goal — find a college in a completely different part of the country. Her top two schools were on opposite sides of the United States. She chose Penn State for its proximity to New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.

“I didn't know anybody in Pennsylvania,” she said. “I hadn't visited the state before. I just packed up my bags and went for it.”

Starting at Penn State Abington, she honed her writing skills. That led her to choosing a journalism major and joining the Bellisario College at University Park. She also is minoring in women’s studies. In addition to the News Lab, she is active in Iota Iota Iota, a national women’s honor society. This summer, she also interned with Minnesota Women’s Press, a publication that spotlights the issues and stories of women in the North Star State.

Eichhof hopes to find a career writing about social issues, women’s rights and topics that she said, “affect people in ways we don’t think about.” With plans to graduate this December, she is looking forward to a class with Messitt that will visit parts of Pennsylvania to report on the upcoming presidential election. She also has plans to become an editor with Centre Documenters.

“This past year with all the experiences and opportunities was a really big turning point for me,” Eichhof said. “It was the first time I had taken journalism classes … then getting all these experiences with Documenters, Maymester and the Women’s Press, it’s really amazing and encouraging.”

She added, “I can see myself doing this in my career, which is super sweet. I chose the right thing for me.”