In this blog series intern Kate E. interviews the staff here at culture: the word on cheese to give you an inside look at a day in the life of this goofy group of cheese-lovers and their work on the magazine you’ve come to love. Have specific questions for or about our staff? Be sure to send them to staff@culturecheesemag with the subject line, “Meet the Staff”.
In the mornings here at culture, the interns slowly start congregating around our big, wooden desk. Laptops open, the snack area is raided, and work begins. As we scour the Internet, looking for the latest pieces of news we can link to culture‘s website, conversation topics around the table range from baby goats to Harry Caray. Things settle down as everyone starts to focus on their own projects.
The interns (from the back right, Kate Edeker, Jesi Dunaway, Amanda Furrer, and Lauren Kouffman) out for pizza with Becca Haley-Park, Amy Scheurman, and Stephanie Skinner (left to right)
Jesi Dunaway
Editorial Intern
Jesi is our resident cheesemonger, meaning that on Tasting Tuesdays, we all decide that she should be the one cutting the slices of cheese. Jesi’s projects are for the print version of the magazine; she been writing an article about a herding dog (the adorable Welsh Corgi) and another on recently released cookbooks featuring cheese. With her master’s degree in food studies and a full-time job surrounded by cheese at Boston’s Savenor’s, this job fits her perfectly; “I’ve always wanted to be a writer, so this internship was the perfect opportunity to see what a career in writing might look like, while still staying within the realm of my current career. It’s been particularly fulfilling to see how my experiences in my internship and in my full-time job have built upon one another.”
Kate Edeker
Online Editorial Intern
Since I’ve been working on our “Meet the Staff” blog, I feel like I get to know about everyone in the office, which is very entertaining. Interviewing everyone here has given me a great feeling for what the culture is here: laidback, welcoming, and occasionally silly. I also help to maintain the Twitter page. Before culture, I worked as a line chef in a Mediterranean restaurant, where I was introduced to grilled feta. Try it immediately. Currently, I am working towards my Master’s in Publishing and Writing from Emerson College.
Amanda Furrer
Online Editorial Intern
Making the rest of us jealous, Amanda gets to work with delicious pictures of cheeses (“the kind that induces salivation and stomach grumbles, and feeds cheesy intellect to satisfy everyone’s inner curd nerd”) and post them on the Tumblr to get cheese lovers excited about our content. She also reaches out to bloggers, asking the ones with beautiful cheese DIY projects if we can feature their works. These get reposted to our website onher blog. She came to culture after working as a food editor at lifestyle magazine in Florida. She eventually tired of writing about burgers, ice cream, and hot dogs and moved back to Boston and is enrolled in BU’s Master’s program in Gastronomy.
Lauren Kouffman
Online Editorial Intern
Although her background was originally in creative writing, Lauren just began pursuing her Master’s in Gastronomy at BU (yes, the same program as Amanda) with an emphasis in Food & Communications. Her responsibilities at culture include keeping a watchful eye over our Facebook page and maintaining a regular blog about our Winter Cheeseplate Giveaway. During this blog project, she connected with five different food bloggers and gathered their thoughts on our delicious pairings, “which was an awesome way for us to reach out to our blogging audience and connect lots of new readers to culture.”
Although we are all working on different projects, we collaborate often, whether this means help spelling a French cheese or comparing notes after a cheese tasting. Yes, we occasionally do the less glamorous office work—going through the back issues of culture and indexing the information—but Jesi at least sees the bright side: “It sounds tedious, but it has allowed me to go through and read each issue of culture from cover to cover, which has given me a clear sense of the magazine’s mission, as well as its evolution over the past few years.”
I don’t think any of us knew how much we would be learning from this internship. The cheese tastings alone put everyone in amazing moods and teach us the traditions behind the country’s most delicious cheeses. Lauren sums it up best: “As for the cheese itself: what could be better? I feel like I’ve learned so much, and the experience is always so much better when your senses are fully engaged!”
Kate Edeker
Kate is currently in the Publishing & Writing MA program at Emerson College. While in undergraduate, she spent time working in the kitchen of a Mediterranean restaurant, where she fell deeply and permanently in love with the culinary world. And if you're making a grilled cheese sandwich, she encourages goat cheese with raspberry jam on the top.
