Saroj Lamicchane in the first episode of his podcast, "givingBack."

Still new to the United States after leaving his home country of Nepal, Saroj Lamicchane began his first year of school at Idaho State University studying Business Informatics. Fast forward four years later and he is walking across the stage to receive a diploma for Multiplatform Journalism, optimistic about the road ahead.

He thanks the hands-on experience he learned through his internship in college for this change. Lamicchane worked as a Career Path Intern for the video editing team of ISU’s Continuing Education and Workforce Training (CEWT). There, he found his passion.

“Before starting an internship at CEWT, I never knew videography and video editing would be a good career path for me,” he said. “The environment at CEWT is so welcoming and encouraging. Any projects that I have completed have taught me significant learning experiences in my field. After mastering videography and editing skills, I believed in myself that I can do many things in journalism through storytelling, and finally made me change my college degree.”

At CEWT, student interns learn more than just career experience; they are given opportunities to expand their horizons and try things they would have never thought they would enjoy.

“[Students are] immensely important to leveraging our capability to provide training in our community,” said Gary Salazar, CEWT’s director. “We enjoy working with them and helping broaden their own work experiences, but we know that without their support we would not be able to deliver the programs and outreach that we offer.”

Lamichhane joined CEWT as an intern as a Freshman. Worried that his skills would be inadequate for the position, during his interview, he asked video editing supervisor Paul Dickey if he could use Windows Movie Maker-- a basic video editing tool-- in place of Adobe Creative Suite, which he was less proficient in.

Instead, Dickey taught him from the ground up. “I am thankful to him for the motivation to learn those skillsets and for teaching me everything from scratch,” Lamichhane said.

The skills he developed as an intern proved to be beneficial in more than just his coursework. In Spring 2019, CEWT’s marketing team created a podcast, called CEWT Talk. The podcast centers around engaging in interesting conversations with entrepreneurs, professors, and experts. Several students, including Lamichhane, were involved in the production and development of the podcast’s episodes-- assisting in everything from video/audio editing and filming, to marketing and outreach.

Through CEWT Talk, Lamicchane learned skills like time efficiency and workflow that benefitted his own podcast. Collaborating with his brother Sanjib, they created the channel givingBack Studio in 2018; after learning how to produce a podcast, they created their podcast “givingBack.” Their podcast shares bits of knowledge from various field experts to his Nepali listeners.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, Lamichhane has been able to dedicate more time to his podcast. Unable to have face-to-face conversations, he transitioned to remote podcasting. He stated that the response has been extremely positive ever since.

“Mostly, I have interviewed people from media, film and television,” said Lamichhane. “I have received a tremendous amount of support from my listeners and they say the podcasts have inspired them to think differently and become positive in their field of interest. Personally, I have learned much more from my guests during the interview. The experience has been different than I imagined. I love to hear what they say rather than filling them with too many questions.”

Lamichhane’s internship at CEWT put him on a career path he would have never imagined for himself if he had not had that experience.

“If I had not worked on CEWT as an intern, I would never have a Journalism degree and I would not have produced my own podcast with such confidence. I have a huge respect for the CEWT family, especially my supervisor Paul Dickey,” he added.