The News & Observer announces its 2026 class of summer interns
The News & Observer is proud to introduce our 2026 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.
One intern, Ronni Butts, returns as a reporter on our politics team through McClatchy’s HBCU Development Internship program. 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. Luke Bowles is a doctoral student at the University of Missouri, where he is working toward a Ph.D. in entomology. He works as an AAAS Mass Media Science and Engineering 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.
- Luke Bowles (AAAS/Science): Bowles is a first-year doctoral student at the University of Missouri, where he is working toward a Ph.D. in entomology. He earned his undergraduate degree in cognitive science and philosophy from the University of Georgia. At the University of Missouri, he is researching how private pollinator gardens support native bee diversity and the social factors underlying participation in these initiatives to support pollinator conservation. His communication background includes working as an editor of his high school paper, the University of Georgia’s Political Review, and running his science communication Instagram account, Bowles Bugs.
- Ronni Butts (News): Butts is a rising senior at N.C. Central University, where she is majoring in political science and minoring in mass communications. She is co-editor-in-chief for the Campus Echo student newspaper. Butts, a Cheatham-White Scholar, is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists and is captain of NCCU’s Honda Campus All-Star Challenge (HCASC) quiz bowl team, which just won its first national championship. She took part in the 2025 Politico Journalism Institute and is a member of The New York Times Corps. She is returning to The N&O’s politics team through McClatchy’s HBCU Development Internship Program.
- Autumn Coleman (Service Journalism): Coleman earned her undergraduate degree in Media, Journalism, and Film from Howard University and a master’s of science in journalism with a concentration in magazine from Northwestern University. She has written for Howard Magazine, Northwestern’s Medill Reports and, most recently, as a freelancer, for Long Island Press and Raleigh’s Midtown Magazine. Coleman is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists and is academically fluent in Spanish.
- Janelle Mella (Metro): Mella is a rising senior at Northwestern University, where she is majoring in journalism and minoring in film and media studies and Asian American studies. She currently serves as a solutions journalism reporter at The Daily Northwestern and has held several editorial positions, including reporting on Northwestern’s Associated Student Government. Last summer, she interned at Wisconsin Watch. She is a member of Northwestern’s Asian American Student Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists chapters. She is also an elementary school tutor in Evanston and a figure skating instructor.
- Ava Menkes (Politics): Menkes is graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with degrees in journalism and political science, and minors in history, European studies and Russian, Eastern European and Central Asian studies. Menkes, from Asheville, served as The Daily Cardinal’s managing editor, where she led coverage of the 2024 election, including the DNC and RNC. She previously worked as their state news editor covering the state capitol, campaign rallies and news deserts. Menkes interned with Wisconsin Watch, Isthmus and contributed to The Nation as a Puffin Writing Fellow. She has also freelanced with the Capitol Times and Verona Press. At UW-Madison’s Journalism Ethics Center, she wrote on responsible methods to cover refugees and fact-check politicians.
- Kamran Nia (Sports): Nia is a rising senior at Northwestern University, where he is double-majoring in journalism and political science. He has been the sports editor of the Daily Northwestern, where he has also served as the copy chief and assistant sports editor. Last summer, he interned for the Cincinnati Enquirer. He has also contributed to the Sporting Tribune in Los Angeles and freelanced for other publications, including a byline for ESPN.
- Alli Pardue (Audience): Pardue is graduating from UNC-Chapel Hill where she majored in journalism and earned a minor in Spanish for business. This year, she has been editor-in-chief of The Daily Tar Heel, where she also served as the audience engagement editor. She has interned at The Yadkin Ripple as a reporter and columnist.
- Ben Pennington (Visuals): Pennington is a rising senior at Ohio University, where he is earning a degree in visual communication and photojournalism. He spent six months at The Boston Globe through their photojournalism co-op. He is active in the Ohio News Photographer Association, where he won first place as the student photographer of the year. He has been a contributing photographer to The Post, the student-run newspaper. He recently won second place in the Hearst photojournalism competition and will compete in San Francisco before starting his internship in Raleigh.
This story was originally published April 27, 2026 at 2:42 PM.