She’s back for another year – after all, Nederland is the home town of Intern Eliza DuBose, who is now a student at American University in Washington, D.C. “This internship has become a lifeline to my community as I’ve moved across the country and the world,” DuBose tells The Mountain-Ear.

“I was born and raised in the Nederland community and I love my hometown deeply. I love the fact that you’re guaranteed to run into someone you know when you walk into any bar or restaurant. I love the fact that when fires burnt down houses surrounding Nederland an anonymous community member donated to help the families displaced. I love the fact that no matter what, I know me and my family will always have a community to fall back on.”

DuBose worked as an intern for The Mountain-Ear for the past year, loving every minute of it, she says. “I’ve written stories about local business owners who I once used to carpool with, interviewed the organizers of the Colorado Shakespeare festival, and worked as the beat reporter on the Gilpin School Board meetings. Every story brings me a little closer to the place that I’ve always called home and I can’t help but feel a real flicker of pride every time I see my byline in the paper of the town that I’ve loved so well.”

As a German and journalism major at American, DuBose covers campus events as well as local D.C. news. “I’ve written anything from reports on campus cultural events, film and concert reviews, to interviews with student and professional artists.” But she is particularly drawn to The Mountain-Ear, she says, because of her “desire to serve the place and people that raised me.”

She adds that she believes that working for a local paper is one of the most important actions she can take in supporting not only her community, but democracy as a whole. “The collapse of local journalism since the rise of the internet has greatly impacted rural and suburban communities’ ability to access vital information about their schools, local politics, and even community events. The Mountain-Ear is a stalwart holdout amongst that collapse and I want to do anything I can to support it.”

Adding her university training in photography to her other journalistic skills, DuBose believes that she now has “a very basic understanding” of the elements of good newspaper photography. She hopes to be able to put both her camera and iPhone to use for The Mountain-Ear this year. She has also had experience working on audio-based stories for some of her university classes, which may enable her to help with The Mountain-Ear’s podcasts.

She’s back with us because she believes that local newspapers are “the cornerstone of…our communities.” Knowing that, and knowing how much she cares about this particular community, she “take[s] great pride in participating in that work as a member of The Mountain Ear.”