June 15, 2023

The Scripps Howard Fund is supporting placement of eight interns — college journalism students or 2023 graduates — at nonprofit newsrooms that are members of the INN Network. All of the newsrooms are actively engaged in INN’s Rural News Network, which provides collaborative reporting from and for rural America. 

These paid internships are designed to give students from diverse backgrounds high quality, hands-on reporting experience, at little to no cost to the newsroom. All of the newsrooms participating in this partnership between INN and the Scripps Howard Fund cover rural communities and issues and are situated in areas where it can be difficult to recruit talented journalists. To foster their professional development, each of the interns will have a dedicated staffer to report to, and the cohort of eight will attend weekly trainings led by experts on a range of journalism topics, including writing for multimedia, the business side of news, how to access public records, beat reporting and avoiding burnout. 

“Journalism is most effective when those who report the news reflect the diversity of people and communities they cover,” said Mike Canan, director of journalism strategies at the Scripps Howard Fund. “Our partnership with INN not only gives these interns hands-on experiences – but also helps provide coverage of communities that are under-reported on.” 

Starting this month, the internships will run for 10 or 20 weeks at these digital and broadcast outlets: Oklahoma Watch, South Dakota News Watch, Indian Country Today (ICT), KOSU Radio, The Daily Yonder, Wisconsin Watch, Carolina Public Press, and Lower Cape TV. 

“INN members constantly impress me with their commitment to mentoring the next generation of journalists,” said Sara Shahriari, INN’s director of leadership and talent development. “With this partnership, we are addressing the difficulty some rural newsrooms face in recruiting great talent and working to bring a powerful journalistic growth and mentorship opportunity to people at the beginning of their careers. Joining a small or local reporting team can offer interns the opportunity to tell stories and innovate in ways that just wouldn’t be possible in a huge newsroom.”

These interns were recruited from a pool of more than 100 applicants and come from schools across the U.S.: 

• Yasmeen Saadi, University of Missouri
• Abigail Stegeng, Augustana University
• JoVonne Wagner, University of Montana Missoula
• Isabel Nissley, Ohio University
• Janie Ekere, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Farrah Anderson, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• Grace Vitaglione, American University 
• Olivia Turner, Emory University

Learn more about INN’s internship and fellowship opportunities.