VCU news

By Sian Wilkerson

This past fall, Brianna Cobbs spent a lot of time on the go. Throughout the semester, the second-year political science major in the College of Humanities and Sciences at Virginia Commonwealth University split her time between Richmond and Washington, D.C. as she completed a three-month communications internship with Warner Bros. Discovery.

The distance between Monroe Park Campus and the CNN studio in the nation’s capital is a little more than 100 miles. Each week, Cobbs made the lengthy trip up and down I-95 as she balanced two jam-packed days of classes and three days in the studio. Thankfully, she said, her family still lives in Northern Virginia, which helped her cut down on some of the travel.

As for how she handled it, “I’m pretty structured with my calendar,” Cobbs said. “It’s like my Holy Grail.”

It wasn’t a particularly easy semester. But for Cobbs, who aspires to a career in political journalism, it was well worth it.

During the internship, Cobbs worked at both CNN and TNT Sports. As with any news job, every day looked a bit different than the last. Her most memorable day on the job was Election Day, which she spent shadowing a news associate, running scripts and handing off updates to anchors such as Jake Tapper, Dana Bash and John King. It was a behind-the-scenes look at the biggest night of the year in politics reporting.

“It’s so hectic,” she said. “When we’re sitting in the central apparatus room, it’s so freezing and you hear all of this yelling because all of these producers are yelling at different banners going through. The craziness was what made the day memorable.”

In 2020, Cobbs became interested in the idea of going into journalism after watching coverage of the presidential election and the COVID-19 pandemic. She came to VCU to study mass communications but then changed her major to political science with the idea of going to law school.

People here are so open and kind, and everyone is so themselves that it feels like you can be yourself too. There’s no mold here.

Brianna Cobbs

It wasn’t until meeting Laura Coates, a legal analyst and television broadcaster, that Cobbs realized she could do both.

“I’m interested in political journalism, so I just wanted to be around the news constantly in my every day,” she said about her switch to political science. “Instead of learning how to shoot the news, I wanted to learn what I would be talking about.”

Cobbs, who grew up in Northern Virginia, became interested in politics because of her parents, who are both retired from the military.

“The news is always on in my house,” she said. “So I think that got me like, ‘Oh, I could do this.’”

She found out about the internship opportunity through a National Association for Black Journalists conference in D.C. Although just a sophomore, she decided to put in an application and hope for the best.

“Don’t hold off on applying to internships,” she advised. “When I was applying, a lot of people said, ‘Oh, it’s only for juniors.’ You don’t have to worry about that. Start ahead so you’re not playing catch-up. It’s going to get so much more competitive as time goes on. I think getting ahead of the curve is always the right answer – you’d rather be early than late.”

Cobbs, who has also written for The Commonwealth Times, cited her ongoing VCU experience as a reason for growth both personal and professional.

“I think VCU is one of those schools where you have to become independent relatively quickly, just because you’re in a city,” she said. “So you have to put yourself out there. Even though it can be intimidating, what I’ve enjoyed the most is that the people here are so open and kind and everyone is so themselves that it feels like you can be yourself too. There’s no mold here.”