T-Squared: Introducing our summer fellows

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We’ll be welcoming our summer 2022 fellows soon.

It’s always an exciting time for us. These are college students or recent graduates who are paid to work full-time with us and who gain practical knowledge and experience in their fields. The Texas Tribune employs fellows to work not just in the newsroom, but in all areas of our organization, including events, product development and marketing. The journalism produced by Tribune fellows is significant and meaningful, including coverage of the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas’ border security efforts, the midterm elections and Texans lost to COVID.

Their experiences with us can lay the foundation for wonderful careers. One of our former fellows, Arya Sundaram (spring 2019), was part of the reporting team that won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting. Another, Carrington J. Tatum (2019-20) won a 2022 National Headliner first place award for online beat coverage. It’s a wonderful feeling to have helped talented young professionals early in their careers and watched them go on to soar to new heights.

Let me introduce you to the incoming 2022 fellows starting with us June 6. They are an amazingly talented group with so much potential. We at the Tribune are thrilled to help start them on their journeys.

Our summer student fellows:

Kylie Cooper, photo fellow

Originally from Massachusetts, Kylie is a recent graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, where she studied communication and journalistic writing. During her time at Penn, she worked as the photo editor and news photo editor at The Daily Pennsylvanian, the student newspaper, and was the photographer for the university’s sustainability office. Kylie sees photojournalism as the perfect way to explore her curiosities about the world and artfully share what she finds with others. When she isn’t photographing, she is probably cooking and baking new vegan recipes, getting lost in Harry Potter fan theories, or listening to Taylor Swift.

Greta Díaz González Vázquez, multimedia fellow

Greta is an international graduate journalism student at the University of North Texas, where she is also earning a certificate in narrative journalism. Greta worked as a journalist in Mexico for six years, freelancing and doing multimedia journalism for a public radio station. Her reporting is focused on gender violence in Mexico and science journalism. Greta’s work has earned state and national awards in her home country, including the National Award for Science Journalism and the National Journalism Award Against Discrimination. Greta believes empathy is a fundamental ingredient for storytelling.

Jaden Edison, reporting fellow

Jaden is a graduate student in the Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism at Columbia University. He previously interned at Poynter, a nonprofit media institute. He wrote stories about a variety of topics, including Supreme Court decisions that affected journalists and “Some Personal News,” a series on journalism layoffs and reporters who left their jobs during the pandemic. Edison graduated in May 2021 from Texas State University in San Marcos, where he studied electronic media. At Texas State, he served as the editor-in-chief of The University Star, the student-run newspaper on campus, where he created The 11% Project, an award-winning multimedia endeavor about the experiences of Black students on campus.

Brier Evans, multimedia fellow

Brier has worked as a reporting intern for The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate, a production intern for the New Orleans Access Television studio, and is the Editor-In-Chief for her university’s newspaper, The Xavier Herald. She enjoys coffee, watching movies and exploring new restaurants with friends.

Megan Fletcher, design fellow

Megan is returning to the Tribune for a second semester. She is a senior at the University of Texas at Austin, where she studies journalism and religious studies. Megan has previously worked as the design editor at The Daily Texan, UT’s student newspaper; as a graphic designer at UT’s College of Liberal Arts; and as an intern in the Texas House of Representatives.

Kennedy Garrett, marketing and communications fellow

Kennedy is a recent public relations and sociology graduate of Loyola University in New Orleans. She has participated in the Public Relations Society of America’s 2022 Bateman Competition and previously has interned with La Federación Argentina LGBT, a nonprofit in Buenos Aires. With college behind her, Kennedy looks forward to attending more concerts, traveling and launching a career in public relations in her hometown of Houston.

Raven Harper, engagement fellow

Raven is a recent graduate of Hampton University’s Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications. She also was a summer engagement fellow at the Tribune in 2021 and previously was a social media intern for Her Campus Media, Hampton University’s digital women’s magazine, serving as president, associate editor and social media director. Raven also has worked as campus editor of The Hampton Script, Hampton’s student-run newspaper.

Isaiah Noel Iturralde, events fellow

Isaiah is a senior at the University of Texas at El Paso. He has held leadership positions with local, state and national organizations focused on increasing civic engagement. He is an upcoming Bill Archer Fellow, a Terry Foundation Scholar, and the founder of nonprofit, The Homeful Agenda, which is committed to combating homelessness among students in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade. He enjoys listening to music and watching sports in his free time.

Eric Lau, data visuals fellow

Eric previously was a Tribune spring 2022 engineering fellow. He is a rising junior at the University of Michigan, where he studies computer science with minors in digital studies and science, technology and society. He is a managing online editor and was previously a data journalist and web developer at his student newspaper, The Michigan Daily. He is a member of the Asian American Journalists Association.

Cecilia Lenzen, reporting fellow

Cecilia Lenzen is a graduate of the University of Texas at Arlington. She has worked as a fellow at the Fort Worth Report and freelanced for The Dallas Morning News, Dallas Observer, Daily Dot and other Texas news publications. Previously, she worked as a reporter and life and entertainment editor at The Shorthorn, UT-Arlington’s student-run newspaper, before serving as editor in chief during the spring 2021 semester.

Megan Munce, engagement fellow

Megan Munce is a summer 2022 engagement fellow. A graduate of Northwestern University, she was previously a spring 2021 reporting fellow at the Tribune, a reporting intern for Bay City News and an audience intelligence intern for KQED, the Bay Area’s NPR and PBS member station. At Northwestern she was The Daily Northwestern’s campus editor, overseeing coverage of student protests and the COVID-19 pandemic on Northwestern’s campus, as well as the president of the mock trial team.

Eric Neugeboren, Washington, D.C., reporting fellow

Eric is a junior at the University of Maryland studying journalism, government and politics. He has worked for the student newspaper, The Diamondback, since his freshman year, starting as a staff writer and working up to news editor. He previously has held internships at Voice of America, The Daily Record and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He is a native of the D.C. metropolitan area and has developed a passion for writing about the impact of politics on people’s everyday lives. In his free time, he enjoys playing tennis, hiking and catching up on TV shows.

Ariana Perez-Castells, reporting fellow

Ariana reports and writes both in English and Spanish, and is interested in data and investigative stories. Ariana graduated from Bard College in 2015 with a B.A. in written arts and human rights. Since then, she’s spent 6 years working in the publishing and cultural fields in New York City. She covers labor, climate change, education and health, among other topics. Her writing has appeared in Univision, City Limits, Compound Butter and The Bushwick Daily. She’s currently pursuing an M.A. in Bilingual Journalism at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York.

The Tribune previously introduced you to these year-round fellows, who are starting with us this month, as well:

Fabiana Chaparro, multimedia fellow

Fabiana, part of the Scripps Howard Foundation’s yearlong fellowship program, will produce original video journalism as part of the multimedia team.

Caroline Covington, data visualization fellow

A Scripps Howard fellow, Caroline will join the data visuals team, where she’ll use code and graphics to tell stories with data.

Jayme Lozano, reporting fellow

Jayme is joining The Texas Tribune as our first Lubbock-based reporter, covering the South Plains and Panhandle through a partnership with Report for America.

Disclosure: Northwestern University – Medill School of Journalism, University of Texas – Arlington, University of Texas at Austin, University of Texas at El Paso and University of North Texas have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.