The News & Observer announces its 2023 class of summer interns
The News & Observer is proud to welcome our 2023 summer interns and fellows.
The journalists will work in departments across the newsroom, including on our metro, politics, business, sports, visuals and audience teams. They’ll work alongside our staff covering everything from breaking news and the state legislature to Triangle happenings.
They bring experiences from college publications and regional newspapers and have been leaders at their schools’ news outlets.
Three students — Steven Matthews Jr., Chrysta Nichols and Jayla Webb — are part of the McClatchy HBCU Internship program, which provides HBCU students with a full-time, paid internship every summer of their college career, as well as a job upon graduation. The program, established in 2022, started with eight students from seven HBCUs. This year, there are 12 students. Matthews will be part of the Service Journalism Team, while Nichols and Webb will work with the audience team.
Our business intern, Elizabeth Egan, is working with The N&O as part of the Dow Jones News Fund’s 2023 Internship Program with a focus on business reporting.
The N&O is also continuing its long-running relationship with the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Andrea Tamayo will work as an AAAS Mass Media Fellow. Tamayo, who has a passion for science communication, is a graduate of the University of Florida, where she earned degrees in microbiology and cell science and international studies.
All interns will write for The News & Observer and The Herald-Sun and will receive training and coaching from journalists with The N&O and McClatchy.
Look for their bylines this summer.
Brianna Atkinson (Metro)
Atkinson, a Raleigh native, graduated this spring from UNC-Chapel Hill with degrees in psychology and journalism. She has worked for The Daily Tar Heel on the University Desk, most recently as a senior writer, and as a reporter, producer and anchor for Carolina Connection, the student-run newscast. She worked as a part-time reporter at 97.9 The Hill WCHL, a local radio station in Chapel Hill. She was an intern last summer at The Greensboro News & Record and also has been an intern for the Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media. She won third place in the 2022-23 Hearst Awards in the audio news/features category and will be competing in the national competition in June.
Anna Connors (Visuals)
Connors is a rising senior at UNC-Chapel Hill, where she is a Morehead-Cain Scholar and is double-majoring in journalism and global studies. She has worked as staff photographer and photo editor with The Daily Tar Heel and as a freelance photographer with The Chatham News & Record. Her work has been published in The Baltimore Sun.
Elizabeth Egan (Business)
Egan graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill with degrees in Media and Journalism and Global Studies. She will be working at The News & Observer as part of the Dow Jones News Fund’s 2023 Internship Program with a focus on business reporting. During her senior year, she served on the management team of The Daily Tar Heel as the Community Engagement Director. She also reported for the City & State and University desks and held roles as the Assistant Arts & Culture Editor and Audience Engagement Editor. Last summer, she was an intern with the Triangle Business Journal. She was awarded first place in student work for professional outlets by the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing for the story, “College Rents on the Rise.”
Madison Hricik (Sports)
Hricik is a recent graduate of James Madison University, where she studied media arts & design, with a minor in sports communications. She was the senior sports editor of JMU’s student-run newspaper, The Breeze, and worked as an analyst for JMU Sports Network on ESPN+. She has written for the Daily News-Record, the Richmond Times-Dispatch, The Buffalo News and The Washington Post, and recently finished an internship with the SPHL’s Roanoke Rail Yard Dawgs.
Jazper Lu (NC Insider/Politics)
Lu is a rising junior studying political science and public policy at Duke University. He is the managing editor of The Chronicle, Duke’s independent student newspaper, where he also worked as the Local & National Editor, and coordinated the newspaper’s coverage of the 2022 midterm elections. Last summer, he worked as a policy research intern at the Libertas Institute and the Center for Political-Military Analysis.
Steven Matthews (Service Journalism)
Matthews is a rising sophomore at North Carolina A&T University, where he is studying Journalism and Mass Communication with a concentration in multimedia journalism. He writes for The A&T Register and recently was named a co-lead reporter and a radio personality for WNAA 90.1 FM Radio. He’s a member of the National Association of Black Journalists and was recently named its community service director. He plays several instruments and has performed with Aggie Night Live.
Chrysta Nichols (Audience)
Nichols is a rising junior at North Carolina A&T University where she is a multimedia journalism major. She’s a member of the National Association of Black Journalists and is an entertainment reporter for The Real Spill Show, which produces informal news content for the campus community. She also has her own YouTube Channel with fashion, beauty and lifestyle content.
Makiya Seminera (Politics)
Seminera graduated from the University of Florida with a degree in international studies and Arabic and a minor in mass communication. She worked for five semesters on The Independent Florida Alligator, UF’s student-run newspaper and served as editor-in-chief in Fall 2022. She previously served as managing editor for Florida Political Review and was a reporter for WUFT News’ Fresh Take Florida. Last summer, she was an intern for the politics & government team at The State newspaper in Columbia, S.C.
Andrea Tamayo (AAAS fellow)
Tamayo is a graduate of the University of Florida where she earned degrees in microbiology and cell science and international studies. She worked as an undergraduate student as a research assistant for an infectious disease lab and served as editor of Daydream, an online Gainesville-based magazine. Since graduating, she has worked for the University of Florida as a research assistant, studying infectious diseases like COVID-19 and influenza, and as a science communicator with Explore. This spring, she was an intern with the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard as a science writing and communications intern. She is working at The N&O as a AAAS Mass Media Fellow, a program of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Jayla Webb (Audience)
Webb is a rising junior at Benedict College, where she is majoring in Mass Communications with a minor in Marketing. She is a writer and editor of the new Honors Newsletter, “The Black Achievers Digest,” where she’s covered topics ranging from school events to Black history happening in colleges today, to the impact of the new “Little Mermaid.” She enjoys connecting with audiences and using her creativity through social media.
This story was originally published February 14, 2023 at 3:00 PM.