With a little luck, I had a fantastic opportunity to intern for Portland Magazine, a great publication in Portland, Maine. Aside from the usual, menial tasks set aside for an intern, I was able to see first-hand the inner-workings of a major publication, writing feature articles, contributing artwork and photography, and gaining the confidence I needed to write for a large audience.
Writing for small-town weekly newspapers like the Monument, Lakes Region Suburban Weekly, and American Journal meant covering a variety of stories and having my name attached to almost every article in each issue. Friends and colleagues joked that it should have been called the "John Schoen" instead of the "Monument". I still revel in the experience of being so involved in the local goings-on of small communities and reporting on national and state issues that penetrated many aspects of their lives.
Print journalism is a tough business, especially in age of electronic communication. Seeing the writing on the wall, I have dedicated myself to studying web development and applications. This is a screen-shot of a website I designed, called CSS Zen Garden. With the generous help of Professor Bill Wolff of Rowan University, I now have practical experience with the design and development of websites and a developing talent for online journalism and communication.
