Rebecca Ferman is currently serving as the Jewish Light’s 2015 Joseph J. Edlin Memorial Journalism Intern this summer.

The Joseph J. Edlin Memorial Journalism Internship was founded in memory of attorney and real estate developer Joseph J. Edlin, by his widow, Miriam “Mimi” Edlin, who currently lives in Sarasota, Florida.

Joseph Edlin, a native St. Louisan, served as board president of the Jewish Light, and was an avid writer, getting book reviews published in the Jewish Light, the St Louis Globe-Democrat, St Louis Post-Dispatch and the New York Times.

For about 10 years, the endowment set up in his memory was used for the Joseph J. Edlin Memorial Lectureship, and in 2006, the fund was used to create a summer internship position at the Jewish Light. 

“We really wanted to set up the memorial fund and this internship with an appreciation for the art of communication, both in the spoken and the written word,” Mimi Edlin said in a past interview. 

Edlin set up a similar internship with the Sarasota-Manatee Jewish News.

Ferman, 20, will be a junior this fall at the University of Missouri-Columbia Journalism School. She is planning to major in journalism with an emphasis in arts, culture and entertainment.

She is the daughter of David Ferman and Susan Ferman, both St. Louis natives. Her family belongs to Congregation B’nai Amoona. Ferman attended Lafayette High School, where she was the social media coordinator for the school’s paper, The Image, during her senior year. In addition to running the paper’s Twitter feed, she wrote multiple stories for both print and online.

At Mizzou, Ferman has worked with the student-run paper The Maneater and written reviews for the theater department. This year, she plans to get involved with Vox Magazine, which is published by The Columbia-Missourian and write plays for Mizzou’s theater department.

Ferman says that she has loved reading and writing since a very young age, which influenced her to pursue a career in journalism.

“I’ve always enjoyed telling people stories. I want to write to not only inform people, but create some sort of impact on them as well,” Ferman said. “I’d like my writing to be able to connect to somebody – to educate or influence them about a subject that they may have not thought about before.”

After she graduates, Ferman hopes that, in addition to having a successful career as an entertainment journalist, she will be able to write or direct for films, television or theater productions.

“It would honestly be a dream come true to see something that I’ve written or helped create being performed in a professional, talented setting,” Ferman said.