Guest instructors Cynthia Wang and Bret Begun give a lecture about advanced interviewing techniques.

Bret Begun displayed his rejection letters like wounds that all striving journalists must suffer.

The guest instructor waved more than 10 letters from publications across the country, all of which rejected the future national affairs editor of Newsweek magazine.

“It excited me to see someone who faced a lot of rejection and came out on top as an editor of Newsweek,” Julia Haskins, of Washington D.C., said. “He’s really smart and dedicated and an inspiration to all the people who have been put down in this business.”

Despite the rejections, Begun landed a job as intern at Newsweek and eventually became an editorial assistant in 1998. He encouraged cherubs to embrace small jobs and to do them with a smile.

Jason Jung, of Los Angeles, said the letters were more powerful than an instructor’s words. 

“A lot of journalists here have told me you have to be persistent,” Jung said.  “And it really struck home for me when Bret Begun showed us the rejection letters. It’s one thing when someone tells you with their words and another when they have physical evidence.”

Bridget Fitzgibbons, of Longmont, Colo., said she thought Begun’s rejection letters made him human. 

“He wasn’t ashamed to show us that now he’s so successful but he had to deal with so much rejection,” Fitzgibbons said. “I know I will have to go through that same process of getting rejected, but now I know I will get hired, maybe even by the time I’m legal.”