St. Louisan Ariana Tobin will serve as the 2008 Joseph J. Edlin Summer Intern for the St. Louis Jewish Light.

Tobin was among roughly a dozen applicants for the internship, which was founded by Mimi Edlin to honor her late husband, Joseph J. Edlin, a past president of the St. Louis Jewish Light Board.

Tobin will be entering her sophomore year at Washington University, where she is majoring in English and international studies with a minor in writing.

Tobin served as editor-in-chief at her high school newspaper, the Panorama, at Ladue High School.

At Washington University, Tobin participates in One World, a once-a-semester social justice magazine.

Tobin said she is interested in journalism for a number of reasons, but chief among them is a desire to provide society with accurate information representing multiple viewpoints.

“I like that journalism helps shape public debate,” Tobin said. “What people report on and what people bring into the public view is all they know. The way you say it, the way you phrase it, can have a huge impact on public policy and its really important for a society that tries to run on the education of it’s citizens.”

However, she noted that she also loves writing and talking with people, and was interested in interning at the Jewish Light to gain experience in journalism over the summer and get a feel for community journalism.

“It seemed like a really good experience and it was nice to work with community journalism before anything else,” she said. “I think it is important on the one hand to report on things that are familiar to you and also to give back to a community. I wanted to start there.”

“And it was also something I’ve never done before, so it would be a good way to test it out and see if it’s something I really want to do,” she said.

Tobin has been active in the community, serving as a Kranzberg scholar with the Anti-Defamation League, and as a group leader in the Jewish Community Relations Council’s Student-to-Student program. She also participated in a Jewish Community Relations Council’s Jewish-Muslim teen dialogue group.

Tobin is the daughter of Lynn and Garry Tobin. The family belongs to Central Reform Congregation.