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Life-long dream

While other girls her age worshipped boy bands like N-Sync or the Backstreet Boys, Tracy McCullough instead was more interested in Hugh Downs, Barbara Walters and John Stossel.

"As a little girl I didn't do normal kid things," she says. "On Friday nights I would sit in front of the TV and watch '20/20.'

"It was my dream in life to work for ABC News and '20/20.' I think it was ABC News and '20/20' that made me want to go into journalism."

That dream came true this summer as Tracy spent two months as an intern with ABC in New York City. But the dream almost wasn't realized.

Advanced planning
It was always Tracy's plan to apply for an internship with ABC in New York during the summer prior to her senior year. She built up an impressive resume that included broadcasting work on campus and with Des Moines' WHO-TV 13 where she did some weekend camera work and kept the station's web site up to date on Saturdays and Sundays.

She also fine tuned her application cover letter and resume by working with the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences' Office of Career Services.

"I worked hard to make the cover letter and resume perfect," Tracy says.

She even saved money to help with expenses of traveling to and living in New York City.

But when it came time to submit an application to ABC News, Tracy hedged her bets and sent out others as well.

Maybe that fine-tuning of the application letter and resume helped out. Tracy got the call from ABC News and went through an interview process.

"When I got the call over spring break that I was accepted into their program, it was a very emotional time for me," said. "Honestly I didn't know if I would be accepted or not since these internships are very competitive.

"I was lucky that I got my dream job."

In the Big Apple
But the dream job almost turned sour. When Tracy arrived for her internship the web experience she had developed on campus and at WHO-TV "pigeonholed" her into similar work with ABC News.

She was initially assigned to the "Talk Back" and "Exclusivia" at ABC. There she worked on web sites and sought out individuals who would be willing to submit videos to "Talk Back."

It wasn't really what she had in mind when she traveled to New York City.

The ever-persistent Tracy went to human resources at ABC and requested a change into the news division, mentioning that it was her dream to be on "20/20."

A couple of weeks later, she was transferred and spent the final month of her internship in her dream job.

"The most frustrating thing was I was so close to my dream but I couldn't quite get there," she said. "I was going to do whatever it took to work at '20/20.'"

The final four weeks at "20/20" and the other ABC News magazine show "Primetime" was all Tracy could hope for. She had the opportunity to work with a variety of producers and went on two on-site shoots for the news magazines.

She also researched and pitched a story that is scheduled to be aired sometime in the upcoming season.

"I was definitely able to get involved with multiple projects there and get an idea what it was like to work at '20/20," Tracy says. "It was a dream come true."