Two Wartburg College communication arts students will embark on internships with prominent media companies in Washington D.C. in the coming months.

Shelby Granath ’13, from Rockford, Ill., will spend May Term at Deutsche Welle (“German Wave”), Germany’s leading international broadcaster. Ben Hoppenworth ’13, from Waterloo, will operate behind the scenes this summer at the Fox News bureau in the capital.

For Granath, the internship was somewhat unexpected, benefiting from a newfound relationship between the German media giant and Wartburg. Director General Erik Bettermann led a DW delegation that visited campus last September at the behest of Dr. Joachim “Yogi” Reppmann, a German-born friend of the college who has organized exchanges between U.S. and German organizations.

Their campus tour took them to the Wartburg Television studios, where Granath, the sports director, was anchoring a sportscast.

“They sat right in the studio and watched us,” Granath recalled, “and everybody was freaking out about it. I thought ‘OK, we have an audience.’ I didn’t think it was such a big deal, so I just anchored.”

Afterward, Dr. Penni Pier, chair of the communication arts department, and Travis Bockenstedt, the station adviser, told her the DW contingent “wants you to think about an internship.”

“I didn’t really know what to expect,” Granath said, “but it’s one of those opportunities you can’t turn down. So I said, ‘Yeah, I’ll do it.’”

Granath expects to have varied responsibilities, both preparing and covering stories for the DW audience’s international TV, radio and Internet audiences.

“They really want me to do a lot of tourist-related things — the Smithsonians and the monuments — which would be of interest to foreign audiences,” she said. “So maybe I’ll talk about what exhibits I saw, and what I liked. It will be a lot of different things.”

Granath, who has had prior internships with WTVO, a Rockford Fox affiliate, is hoping to parlay her experience post-graduation into a position in sports.

“Maybe this internship would lead to something in international sports or Olympic coverage,” she said. “It all depends on what connections I make out there. I definitely want to be broadcasting sports in front of a camera.

“This internship is going to be interesting because it’s news and politics,” she added. “Penni Pier keeps telling me it’s going to help build my career to be diverse.”

“Shelby is an outstanding student, journalist and leader in our department. We are lucky to have her represent Wartburg College,” Bockenstedt said.

As an added benefit, Granath, Pier, Bockenstedt and Wartburg President Darrel Colson will attend DW’s annual Global Media Forum, June 25-27, in Bonn, Germany.

Hoppenworth had a local internship lined up for the summer, but took “a shot in the dark” that he could land a job at a cable network. Fox News liked his resumé.

“The main question in the interview was, ‘What all do you do for Wartburg television?’ Ten minutes later I finished answering the questions, because I do a lot there,” he said. “I think they liked what they heard.”

Hoppenworth, who has been executive producer of WTV’s “Knightwatch,” believes the long hours he has invested in student media have paid off. 

“It’s given me a lot of experience from Day One,” he said. “What Wartburg TV gives all of us is hands-on experience for four full years. If I had just started learning about this stuff this year, there’s no way I’d be where I am right now.”

This summer he’ll be with Fox’s weekend “America’s News Headquarters” program with anchors Uma Pemmaraju, Kelly Wright, Shannon Bream and Jamie Colby. The show covers politics, health, military matters, and minority and consumer topics. His unpaid internship — he’ll be staying with relatives in Virginia — runs from June to August.

“A lot of it is going to be lining up interviews,” Hoppenworth said, “but a lot of it is researching topics, conducting pre-interviews and getting video and audio set up for stories.

“Sometimes when we come back from a break it will say ‘America’s Election Headquarters.’ There will be a lot of politics being in D.C., and during an election year that’s what I want to do. It’s going to be fun.”

Upon graduation he’d like to be a field reporter “meeting people and telling their stories. That’s what it’s all about for me,” he said.

“During the past year I’ve watched Ben grow and cannot wait to hear about his journey with Fox News, Bockenstedt said, “He is an outstanding news producer and anchor for Wartburg Television.”