The Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting’s 2025 Investigative Reporting Interns are now nearing the end of their internships, but the 17 collegiate journalists and recent college graduates began their program with the Society’s annual internship boot camp.
The Atlanta-based program allowed the interns to grow their skills in investigative reporting, meet their peers, and connect with two co-founders of the organization. The boot camp is designed to ensure the students are heading to their newsrooms with skills to enhance their summer experience.
“We created this boot camp to be a fun confidence-builder for the students,” said Arlette Hawkins, the Society’s program manager. “Some of them relocated to new cities to work in the largest newsrooms of their emerging careers. We wanted to ensure they felt personally and professionally ready to make their mark in their internships.”
The four-day boot camp included a myriad of sessions to prepare the interns for their summer work. Society co-founder Nikole Hannah-Jones trained the students on how to perfect their pitches. Co-founder Corey Johnson started his presentation by emphasizing that every student can be an investigative reporter.
“What investigative reporters do is magical, sacred, and essential to a working democracy,” said Johnson, a Pulitzer-Prize-winning reporter, who now works at ProPublica. “But sadly, much of the work is unknown to the public at large. This includes students and young journalists. During my time with the interns, I wanted to chip away at that wall by sharing examples of life-changing stories done by real, accessible people.”
Several 2024 interns joined the bootcamp virtually, sharing advice based on their experiences. Olla Mokhtar interned at the Associated Press in 2024; it was her first time living in Washington, D.C.
“Being on that call was so fun and kind of surreal,” Mokhtar said afterward. “Just a year ago, I was in their shoes, and now I’m giving them advice. Talking to them felt like I was (paying it) forward for my fellow young journalists trying to better themselves.”
Mokhtar landed her IBWS internship after completing journalism studies at Tarrant County College in Texas. She spent this summer interning at the North Texas NPR station, KERA.
In between working hard in the enrichment sessions, there was time for interns to have fun. The Society kicked off the weekend with a game night and concluded the program with an escape room. Throughout the internships, the Society hosts bi-weekly virtual workshops to continue enriching their experience.
