The fields of aerospace engineering and journalism may not seem related, but for graduate student Ken Kingery, they are a perfect fit.

Kingery, who come Sept. 14 will have degrees in both subjects, has spent his summer writing for the Web site of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center in Palo Alto, Calif.

The accelerator is one of two particle accelerators in the country, Kingery said. The internship is also hard to come by, with only three writers a year.

To add an extra element of writing, and to earn the final three credits he needs to complete a graduate degree, Kingery is recording his experiences in a blog.

"It is an excellent opportunity for Ken to take what he has learned in an academic setting and apply it," said professor Lesa Hatley Major, who is advising the blog. "The blog provides an outlet for discussing and commenting on the challenges and rewards of the experience of doing just that."

Regular entries in the blog and a final paper discussing the benefits and problems of the new media forum will make up the coursework, Hatley Major said. While the idea of keeping a blog for credit is new, she supports it.

"As someone who teaches journalism, I think it is very important to understand and study all of the ways people communicate with each other," she said.

Kingery has already noticed educational outlets of the blog.

"It helps my writing, just because anytime you get to do some free writing, just do free writing and not have to research, if you do that on a daily basis, it will help," he said.

Kingery is also getting his share of writing assignments within the internship, writing everything from event notifications to profiles, all published on the site's Web site.

In fact, Kingery is planning on combining the two forums, publishing his blog on the SLAC Web site.

"Hopefully, once we get these things publicized here, ideally, it would be a place where people could comment or fix things I have written that aren't correct," he said.

The idea also has long term goals.

"Hopefully, if that works, I can use it to help me get a job somewhere," he said.

However, Kingery has no idea what that job will entail.

"I wouldn't mind working for a university, kind of like what I'm doing now," he said. The only difference would be the location, he said. His family is in the Midwest, and he would like to return to the region.

While the specifics are still uncertain, Kingery said the experience at Stanford has reinforced his general ideas about career goals.

"I want to do science writing as a career," Kingery said. "I've always liked writing, but I've always liked space, too. Eventually, I saw a science writing program on the wall (at Ohio State University, where he received his undergraduate degree) and it just clicked: That's what I wanted to do."

Read Kingery's blog at SLAC.

Read more about SLAC.