Ida B. Wells Society

Ida B. Wells Society

Ida B. Wells Society announces largest investigative reporting internship cohort in program history 

You are here: Home / News / Ida B. Wells Society announces largest investigative reporting internship cohort in program history 

Seventeen collegiate and emerging journalists have been selected to participate in the Ida B. Wells Society Investigative Reporting Internship Program this summer. 

The cohort is the largest in the initiative’s history, with more than a three-fold increase in newsrooms participating in the effort since its inception in 2021, when seven interns were placed at five news organizations.  

Founded by four prize-winning African American investigative journalists, the Society is a news trade organization devoted to increasing the numbers of journalists of color and other underrepresented groups in investigative reporting and editing ranks.  

2025 interns hail from a broad spectrum of colleges and universities and will be placed in an equally diverse collection of newsrooms, including some of the nation’s largest and most prestigious news organizations, metropolitan daily newspapers, nonprofit newsrooms and, for the first time, a prize-winning, historic Black newspaper.  

“This year’s expansion represents extraordinary growth for the program and reflects the industry’s recognition of the value our interns bring,” said Ron Nixon, co-founder of the Society and director of the Associated Press Local Investigative Reporting Program. “It’s a testament to the growing demand for diverse investigative journalists.” 

Interns will serve 10–12-week appointments on investigative teams or in slots otherwise devoted to data and investigative newsgathering. The Society provides salaries and other professional development support to interns throughout the process, including a pre-internship boot camp that will be held in Atlanta this week. However, this year two news partners agreed to pay the salaries of their selected interns while a third news partner will cover a portion of two internships. 

Here are the selected interns who emerged from a highly competitive pool of hundreds of college juniors, seniors, graduate students and recent graduates who were eligible to apply:  

Daranee Balachandar is graduating from the University of Maryland this month with a master’s degree in journalism, focused on investigative and data reporting. She will intern at The Washington Post. During her time at Maryland, she served as a data journalist for Capital News Service, a reporter for the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism, and a data journalist for The Diamondback, the university’s student newspaper. 
Allison Beck, who graduated from Temple University with a bachelor’s degree in journalism, will serve as an intern at the Miami Herald. Beck served as an editorial intern for Forbes Media and investigations editor for The Temple News.  
Uma Bhat, a newly minted media and journalism graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will intern at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Bhat completed internships with Carolina Demography, The Dallas Morning News, Triangle Business Journal and North Carolina Public Radio.  
Cecilia Egbele recently completed her master of journalism studies at the University of California at Berkeley and will now serve as an intern with Bloomberg News in New York. While pursuing her studies, she served as a state government reporter for Oakland North. She previously worked as a reporter and producer for the Nigerian Television Authority. 
Dasia Garner, a rising senior multimedia journalism major at North Carolina A&T State University, will intern with The Associated Press in Washington, D.C. Garner served as an intern producer at WGHP-TV in Highpoint, North Carolina, news anchor intern at Trinity News in Chicago, and has been director, executive producer, news anchor and reporter for her department’s television newscast.  
Keyla Holmes, a rising senior journalism major at Texas State University, will intern at the Louisville Courier-Journal. Holmes previously served as a reporting fellow at Fort Worth Report. She spent the past year as a writer for a campus online magazine. Previously, she was an editor and reporter for the campus newspaper at Tarrant County College. 
Leah Mallory, a newly minted journalism graduate of Fordham University, will serve as an intern at The Examination, an independent nonprofit newsroom that investigates preventable health threats around the world while seeking to empower people who could be harmed by them. Mallory has been a production intern with WABC-TV in New York, producer intern with BronxNet, and an editorial intern with the New York Amsterdam News based in Harlem.  
Marissa Meador received her degree in journalism and political science from Indiana University this month and will now serve as an intern with the Indianapolis Star. Meador interned with The Herald Times newspaper in Bloomington and Indiana Capital Chronicle in Indianapolis. She received various awards, including Journalist of the Year from the Indiana Collegiate Press Association. 

Lauren Nutall graduated from Howard University this month with a journalism degree and will now serve as an intern with The Dallas Morning News. Nutall previously served as an investigative unit intern with CBS News in Washington, a news writer for Black Enterprise, and a reporter for the investigative unit of her campus newspaper, The Hilltop. 
Lilly Belle Polling, a junior English and global affairs major at Yale University, will intern with The Current GA, which identifies itself as Georgia’s only nonprofit investigative reporting news organization. It provides coverage of the state’s coastal region. Polling served as an intern with The Blade, a daily newspaper in Toledo, Ohio, and has been active as a reporter and editor for the Yale Daily News. 
Zurie Pope, a University of Cincinnati journalism major who has written for a dozen publications, will intern with the Los Angeles Times. Pope has been senior reporter for Youth Journalism International of Augusta, Maine, and editor of The Cramm in Los Angeles. He has interned with Cincinnati Magazine and reported for the News Record, Columbus Free Press and Ohio Capital Journal, among others. 
Kennedy Sessions, a student at City University of New York’s Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, will serve as an intern at Kansas City Star. Prior to entering graduate school, she worked as a reporter for Chron.com in Houston, a political reporter for the Texas Signal and was editor-in-chief of her campus newspaper at the University of St. Thomas in Houston. 
Cindy Shan, a recent graduate of Columbia University School of Journalism, will intern at Snopes, an independent news organization devoted to combatting misinformation by engaging in fact-checking and producing original investigative reporting that “lights the way to evidence-based and contextualized analysis.” Shan has been a production assistant at New York-based GZERO Media and OX3 Production.  
Victoria Valenzuela is a freelance journalist who earned a master’s degree in Specialized Journalism with a concentration in social justice and investigations from the University of Southern California in 2024. She now will intern at USA Today. She previously served as an intern at The Marshall Project, BuzzFeed News, and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.  
Jada Vasser, a senior journalism major and documentary production minor at Michigan State University, will intern at the New York Amsterdam News, one of the nation’s oldest Black newspapers. Vasser has completed internships with Planet Detroit, where she wrote about health and environmental issues, and Detroit Public Television. She was awarded “Story of the Year,” by the Associated Collegiate Press for work she did for her campus newspaper, The State News. 
Trinity Webster-Bass just graduated from Howard University with a journalism and film communications degree and will now serve as an intern at The New York Times. She has been an audio intern at The Washington Post and production intern at WJCT, an NPR affiliate in Jacksonville, Florida. She was part of ProPublica’s 2024 Class of Emerging Reporters, worked as a reporter for her campus newspaper, The Hilltop, and served as president of the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting at Howard, the only current campus chapter associated with the Society. 
Stacey Zhang, a rising senior history major at Amherst College, will intern at the Maine Monitor, a nonpartisan, independent nonprofit news publication of the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting. Zhang served as a reporting intern at The Shoestring in Northampton, Mass., and a news education intern at PBS NewsHour Classroom in Arlington, Va. She has completed stints as senior managing editor and opinion section managing editor for her campus newspaper, The Amherst Student. 

     
Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting
Journalism in Sports, Culture, & Social Justice Department
Morehouse College
IBWS@morehouse.edu