Rojas '10 interning at the Washington Post

Watch here in upcoming days for news on other Battalion staffers' summer internships, but for right now I have some good news to share from Rick Rojas '10, whom I chatted with last week.

"I'm interning as a Metro reporter for the summer," he wrote. "I'm only a week into it, so I've only done three stories, but one made the Metro front and was the most popular local story online last week, which was pretty exciting."

Here are those first stories:

• D.C. man fights citation for warning other drivers


• Germantown residents describe invasion, beating by 3 intruders


• Cigarette may have caused deadly fire

The citation story, about a man who flashed his lights to warn other drivers about a traffic enforcement zone, "created quite a bit of a stir in the community," Rojas says. "It was the most popular Metro story on the Web site for a few days, generated some letters to the editor and had local bloggers going berserk!"

Rojas started as a general assignments reporter on the Maryland desk, stationed in the Montgomery County, Md., bureau. Soon -- or maybe already -- he'll be assigned to a "local topic unit": politics, social issues, breaking news/general assignments or local development.

This spring, he was managing editor for the 2009 Aggieland and a Batt copy editor. Head of Student Publications Bob Wegener wrote in his Washington Post recommendation: "Mr. Rojas has proved to be a go-getter with a real passion for journalism. He has been a key contributor by doing something he does exceptionally well: reporting and writing. Because of his creativity and voice, his stories make readers care."

I've been happy to write about Rojas before (at the NYT Institute on Student Journalism and at the Louisville Courier-Journal last summer) and I'll be happy also to update on more Batt staffers' summer exploits soon. Send me yours!