2023-2024

Michael Symonds

Michael Symonds tackles the rural meets metro beat at WMUK 102.1 FM in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Symonds started his journalistic career as staff reporter with the Western Herald covering news and community, and cultural issues and events on Western Michigan University’s campus. After this position, Symonds worked as the lead Community & Culture reporter for the Western Herald. In addition to this, he worked as a general assignment staff reporter for WMUK 102.1 FM covering life in Southwest Michigan and hosted the talk show Stupid Questions on 89.1 WIDR FM, where he interviewed myriad guests including political experts and registered student organization leaders. Symonds graduated from Western Michigan University in 2023 with a bachelor's in journalism and digital media.

Arabella Saunders

Arabella Saunders covers economic development for New York Focus. Prior to joining the newsroom, Saunders’ freelance work appeared in VICE, HuffPost, DCReport.org, The Assembly NC and more. Her journalism career began in high school, where she served as editor-in-chief of the school’s newsmagazine. In 2018, she was a runner up for the National High School Journalist of the Year. In college, she worked for The Daily Tar Heel and also as a freelancer. She covered topics that ranged from Snapchat porn scams to the undercounting of COVID-19 deaths in North Carolina prisons. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism and media as well as English and comparative literature from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A fun fact about her is that she has a Joan Didion-inspired tattoo.

Joaquín A. Rosado Lebrón

Joaquín A. Rosado Lebrón covers health in Puerto Rico for Metro Puerto Rico. Prior to joining Metro, he reported on air quality and toxic emissions in Puerto Rico for Centro de Periodismo Investigativo and worked as a reporter for the University of Puerto Rico’s radio station, Radio Universidad. His journalism career began by volunteering in a community-led newspaper called El Roble Río Piedras, where he contributed as an editorial designer and writer. His experience as a freelance graphic designer allowed him to collaborate with nonprofit organizations, advertising agencies and media companies. Rosado Lebrón holds a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Puerto Rico, where he also earned his bachelor’s degree in public relations and advertising.

Michaela Rush

Michaela Rush covers the south and west neighborhoods of Dallas for the Dallas Free Press, a nonprofit news organization. Prior to joining RFA and DFP, Rush worked at The Battalion student newspaper at Texas A&M, most recently as the editor-in-chief, covering campus news, local businesses, student organizations and LGBTQ+ topics. Rush will graduate in May 2023 with a degree in English and minor in Spanish. Outside of journalism, she plays several instruments, and is a self-proclaimed "band nerd."

Brooklyn Draisey

Brooklyn Draisey covers higher education across Iowa for Iowa Capital Dispatch. Prior to joining the Iowa Capital Dispatch team, Draisey reported stories from the Quad-Cities, covering the region’s arts and culture community and connecting individual perspectives to larger issues influencing everyone. She fell in love with journalism at a young age, watching national news and reading local publications with her family, and has pursued her career in the industry since joining her high school newspaper. She worked as a reporter and editor at The Daily Iowan, the University of Iowa’s student-run newspaper, and reported on Eastern Iowa for The Gazette and The Southeast Iowa Union before graduating in 2021. Draisey holds a bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Mass Communication and certificate in Entrepreneurial Management from the University of Iowa.

Jordan Green

Jordan Green covers the rural beat for the Longview News-Journal in Longview, Texas. He interned at The Saturday Evening Post magazine in 2022, writing about Midwest culture. He interned in 2020 and 2021 at The Oklahoman in Oklahoma City, where he covered general news, breaking news and the coronavirus pandemic, among other topics. He began his journalism career as a high school sophomore in 2017 at his hometown weekly newspaper, The Blackwell (Okla.) Journal-Tribune. He graduated from Northwestern Oklahoma State University in 2023, where he served as editor-in-chief of the campus paper.

My Ly

My Ly covers the health disparities in Little Rock, Arkansas, for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Before joining the newsroom, Ly was a student at Auburn University where she served as a managing editor, community reporter and editor for The Auburn Plainsman, the student-run newspaper. While at Auburn she earned her bachelor's degree in journalism.

Caleb W. Barber

Caleb Barber covers rural issues and the state legislature in Mitchell, South Dakota for the Mitchell Republic/Forum News Service. Barber was an associate editor and reporter at the Daily Emerald, the University of Oregon's flagship independent student newspaper, where he covered issues pertaining to the city of Eugene, Lane County and the UO at large. Barber interned at the Eugene Weekly, where he covered city government of Eugene, Board of Education elections for Lane Community College. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Journalism from the University of Oregon's School of Journalism and Communication with minors in English and Legal Studies.

Jordan Rusche

Jordan Rusche covers community news in rural North Dakota for the Tioga Tribune and The Journal in Crosby. She recently graduated from South Dakota State University in Brookings where she served as co-editor-in-chief of The Collegian, the student newspaper, and received a bachelor's in English and journalism. Rusche also has held internships at South Dakota Public Broadcasting, doing general reporting on stories throughout the state, and 605 Magazine, covering South Dakota arts, entertainment and more. She was part of the 2022 Pulitzer Center Campus Consortium Fellowship reporting on Indigenous representation in education.

Nikolai Mather

Nikolai Mather covers rural communities for WHQR in Wilmington, North Carolina. Previously, he reported on religion for the Athens-Banner Herald in Athens, Georgia and social justice for Queen City Nerve in Charlotte, North Carolina. Mather was a Levine Scholar at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where he earned a bachelor's degree in political science and served as the opinion editor of the student paper. He primarily studied genocide, winning a scholarship to study the Holocaust in Berlin with Humanity in Action. He has worked in Norway, France and the United Kingdom, but calls the South home.