The News & Observer announces its 2025 class of summer interns
The News & Observer is proud to welcome our 2025 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 and regional publications and have been leaders at their schools’ news outlets.
Three interns will join The N&O as part of McClatchy’s HBCU Development Internship program: Ronni Butts, Darah Derios and Trinity Olivier. The program provides HBCU students with a full-time, paid internship every summer of their college career, as well as a job upon graduation.
The N&O is continuing its ongoing relationship with the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Amber Hazzard is a rising 4th year Ph.D candidate at the Medical University of South Carolina in the Biomedical Sciences program. She work as an AAAS Mass Media Fellow.
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.
Meet this year’s class.
▪ Sophia Bailly (Politics): Bailly is a rising senior at the University of Florida majoring in journalism and minoring in Russian studies. She works for The Independent Florida Alligator as the Enterprise Editor and previously served as the University Editor, where she was recognized for the paper’s coverage of former UF President Ben Sasse’s administrative decisions and spending. She previously interned for the Times-Picayune’s Capitol news bureau covering state politics and was a breaking news reporter for WUFT News as part of Fresh Take Florida. She is passionate about data reporting and has twice attended the NICAR data journalism conferences, including this year as a Hirsch Fellow. She has been an intern for Florida GATOR magazine.
▪ Ronni Butts (News): Butts is a rising junior at N.C. Central University, where she is majoring in political science and minoring in mass communications. She is a reporter for the Campus Echo student newspaper and covered election events in Fall 2024. Butts, a Cheatham-White Scholar, is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists. She also is the social media manager for the Political Science Club and is active with NCCU’s Honda All-Star Challenge (HCASC) quiz bowl team. She is working at The N&O through McClatchy’s HBCU Development Internship Program. This summer, she also will be attending the Politico Journalism Institute.
▪ Darah Derios (Service Journalism): Derios is a rising senior at Hampton University, pursuing a bachelor’s in journalism and a Spanish minor. This is her second year with McClatchy’s HBCU Development Internship Program. She has been involved with various organizations on campus, including Peer Counselors, the Student Recruitment Team, and running the social media accounts for the university’s marching band. She was an intern for Audible as a part of their social media department.
▪ Twumasi Duah-Mensah (Metro): Duah-Mensah graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill in May with a degree in medical anthropology. He worked at The Daily Tar Heel, UNC’s student newspaper, first as a sportswriter and then as a projects reporter. He was a reporter and producer for Carolina Connection, UNC’s student radio station. He has had internships with North Carolina Health News, WUNC’s Youth Reporting Institute and with UNC’s Center for Innovation and Sustainability.
▪ Gabriella Hartlaub (Audience): Hartlaub interned at The N&O last summer, where she worked on the audience team and also wrote sports and feature stories. She is a rising senior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she is studying journalism, public policy and gender and women’s studies. At The Daily Cardinal at UW-Madison, she has covered politics, campus news and the arts. She is currently the social media manager and former arts editor. She was a basketball writer for Sports Girls Club and was a communications associate with ProGov21.
▪ Amber Hazzard (AAAS/Science): Hazzard is a rising 4th year Ph.D candidate at the Medical University of South Carolina. As a student in the Biomedical Sciences program, she researches how bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract affect the heart in post-traumatic stress disorder. She participated in science outreach throughout her undergraduate years at NC State, later discovering her passion for science writing in graduate school. She writes articles that explain biomedical research, healthcare initiatives and outreach programs to the public through SC-SWIFT, her university’s science communications internship. Hazzard is excited to be back in Raleigh, working at the N&O as an AAAS Mass Media Science and Engineering Fellow.
▪ Trinity Olivier (Service Journalism): Olivier is a rising junior at Florida A&M University where she is majoring in broadcast journalism. She serves on the multimedia team for Journey Magazine as well as on staff for WANM 90.5, the Flava Station, where she writes the entertainment segments. She is also a member of the FAMU chapter of the Association of Black Journalists and served as historian for HER University for the 2024-25 academic year. She is working at the N&O as part of McClatchy’s HBCU Development Internship Program.
▪ Grace Richards (Visuals): Richards is a rising senior at UNC-Chapel Hill, where she is majoring in journalism and English with a minor in studio art. She has worked at The Daily Tar Heel as summer photo editor, assistant photo editor and senior staff photographer. She is Chief Marketing Officer for the Meantime Coffee Co., a student-run non-profit coffee shop in Chapel Hill, and was a radio intern for KOTO Radio in Telluride, Colorado. She won the College Photographer of the Year Multimedia: Online Storytelling Award.
▪ Caroline Wills (Sports): Wills graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill this spring with degrees in journalism and political science. In her senior year, she served as sports editor of The Daily Tar Heel, following two years as a sports senior writer. She also wrote for the City and State Desk. She has been a news intern at The Greensboro News & Record and the Hickory Daily Record.
This story was originally published April 25, 2025 at 11:27 AM.