Brennan Collins looks to meld two passions together: Works as part-time Tribune summer intern

photo by Ryan Bergeron
A senior next fall at Greenbush-Middle River High School, Brennan Collins has two big passions in life: basketball and writing. Thanks to a Minnesota News Media Institute/Minnesota Newspaper Association Internship Program, Collins has had the opportunity to work as a part-time summer intern this year at The Tribune.

Brennan Collins said he has trouble sitting in one place for too long and that his mind can sometimes run wild. But, he has found a way to deal with that.

“I can move around in other ways, like getting thoughts out of my head, writing down stories that I’ve just been kind of building up there,” Collins said. “It’s a really good way to like relieve pressure in the mind.”

Thanks to a Minnesota News Media Institute/Minnesota Newspaper Association Internship Program, Collins has been able to relief some of that pressure by working as a part-time summer intern at The Tribune.

Collins talked a little bit about himself, the reason he decided to pursue this internship, some of the things he has done so far, what he found most enjoyable and difficult about the experience, what he hopes to get from this experience, and his potential future plans after graduation.

As far as the internship, The Tribune applied for this program, along with 36 other newspapers and was one of 12 selected for it. This program covers 75 percent of the wages the intern earns up to $1,000.

As for Collins, a senior next fall at Greenbush-Middle River High School, he has two big passions in life: basketball and writing. During the school year, he also enjoys participating in the GMR Drama Department.

In his final high school year, he is looking forward to the bigger responsibilities that come with that, including the opportunity to be a leader. It’s different from past years where he has only had to worry about performing.

“Now you have to worry about being an influence on the next generation that looks up to you and wants to follow and do what you do,” Collins said. “So now you have to worry about also being a role model. So, I’m really looking forward to that and how I can impact, I guess, underclassmen who want to aspire to take part in what I love doing too, like basketball and drama.”

Besides doing the internship this summer, he also continues to work at the Greenbush Pool— now in his third year of that.

“It’s really fun… I honestly think it’s probably the perfect summer job. You get to hang out with your friends, great hours, great tan,” Collins said “… The pool is a really big part of the community. And I feel like… it’s cool, because you’re kind of adding on to the cool childhood summer plan.”

He decided to pursue this internship opportunity for the chance to learn how to meld his two passions, basketball and writing, into one. Ever since middle school English class, he has loved writing stories.

“There’s kind of a form of independence in it, I guess, expression, you’d say,” Collin said. “… It’s always kind of been like a really fun, independent thing I can do with myself.”

Collins has accompanied Tribune reporter Ryan Bergeron on some assignments and has also gone solo on others. In early June, he job shadowed Bergeron during some Section 8A Softball action, and in July, he accompanied Bergeron at a GMR School Board meeting and a Greenbush City meeting.

At these meetings, he admitted that he felt a little out of his depth, thinking about how he would write about all of the situations brought up at these meetings. It did give some insight into how his community operates.

“I thought that was really great to see because you get to see familiar members that you know, like faces that you know come to the council with their problems, and then they work it out,” Collins said. “I thought that was definitely really interesting. I thought that was actually pretty beautiful, actually, to see that our local governments operate in that way.”

He has also written his own stories, including about the Greenbush Memorial Day Program, the local Prairie Fire Children’s Theatre (PFCT) production of “Beauty and the Beast,” the Greenbush-Middle River Summer School Program, and the Section 8A Track and Field Meet.

To see the complete story, read the July 27 issue of The Tribune in print or online.