Kendra Litwiller of Hopedale, Illinois, spent May through July 2013 as an editorial intern at MennoMedia. Kendra is a rising senior at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Va., majoring in English with minors in Writing and Art. She is a member of Hopedale Mennonite Church.
Everyone knows that dinner follows work, for most people. You leave work and start thinking about what you will make. Chicken? Enchiladas? Chicken enchiladas? It’s most likely a given that there is food in your fridge and probably a family waiting to eat, hungry.
Chicken enchiladas from Mennonite Girls Can Cook blog, used by permission.
While working as an editorial intern for the past few months at MennoMedia, I went home hungry nearly every night. Keeping information up-to-date is an essential step in maintaining fresh materials, and this is no different for the staff at MennoMedia. This summer, updates were necessary on both Extending the Table and Simply in Season, and I had the pleasure of taking both of these cookbooks in my hands to help with the changes.
One recipe from the forthcoming revised Extending the Table cookbook,
a Thai egg/rice dish called Het Fang Sai Khaai.
Hence, I was working with recipes for extended periods of time, all the while thinking, Oh, that sounds good. Recipes like Apple Spice Waffles, Fresh Summer Salsa, and Rhubarb Sorrel Crisp made my mouth water. By the end of a day, my stomach would be emitting growls that could compete with bears’, and my mind would be racking itself to remember if I already had ingredients to try something I had seen that day.
But more than the gnawing hunger pangs, I left each day with a desire to know more. Whether this resulted from searching for an article about peace to post to Third Way Café, reading endorsements for Shirley Showalter’s upcoming book, Blush, or editing worship resources for Mennonite Church USA’s Women in Leadership Project, I was constantly aware that I was doing work that I loved but knew little about its technical details. Working with Melodie Davis and the rest of the editorial staff gave me the opportunity to put the skills I have to use in a new setting, and at the same time learn more about the role that editors play in making a company like MennoMedia a success.
When I started work at MennoMedia in May, the staff was in the beginning stages of renovating their Third Way Café website. Part of our discussions centered on the purpose of the website as a source of information on Anabaptists, who was important to reach, and why. After hearing others’ thoughts, I often left with my mind not only on the website and its purpose but on my own work and how it will affect people. My time at MennoMedia left me hungry to know how I can use my talents to provide people with great literature while enhancing their Christian lives. I left each day not only ready to try my hand at some tasty new recipes but eager to implement the knowledge I have gleaned while working this summer.
Kendra Litwiller
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