Sitting at the anchor’s desk on the set of the CBS Evening News, Northeastern University third-year student Young Kim introduced a report focusing on gay college athletes. He delivered the introduction confidently, but after he completed the segment the magnitude of the experience truly sank in.

“I don’t think my mind registered where I actually was until I was walking out of the studio and I saw my hand shaking,” said Kim, a journalism and media and screen studies (formerly cinema studies) combined major who is now on co-op with CBS News in New York. “I was a lot more excited to be there than I thought I’d be.”

His segment highlighted several college athletes, many of whom are feeling increasingly comfortable coming out to their teammates—something no male major league athlete has done while competing for an American baseball, hockey, football or basketball team.

The experience was part of a project through the CBS intern program. In addition to their day-to-day duties working for the network’s broadcast marketing department, CBS interns like Kim are assembled into teams of six or seven for the opportunity to spend one week collectively reporting a news story.

“We got to focus on filming, writing and producing one story as a team,” said Kim, who served as his group’s anchor and photographer. The story was screened on Wednesday night at an event for this summer’s CBS interns.

The bulk of Kim’s work has been for the news division’s broadcast marketing department, which produces promos for upcoming programs. Kim, for his part, coordinates between the producers of national programs and local affiliates and cuts teasers for upcoming shows.

“We’re in the control room working with the producers and the news director, keeping in touch with what’s going on and what’s developing throughout the day,” he said.

Kim got his start in TV journalism on co-op last year, when he worked for the local CBS affiliate in his hometown of Denver helping out with investigative reports and documentary programming.

He hopes to return there after graduation but also knows that he doesn’t need to be reporting from a bustling newsroom or TV studio to produce good stories.

“I’d like to be able to be a backpack journalist, traveling around with a camera, laptop and anything else I might need,” Kim said. “I like to film, I like to edit, I like to be on camera—it’s a great fit for me.”