For the next 10 weeks, you’ll be seeing several new bylines on The Daily Memphian’s stories.

That’s because the 2022 Daily Memphian summer intern cohort began last week.

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The goals of our internship program are to add reporting from a group of young, diverse journalists, as well as give those talented reporters the opportunity to add more daily newsroom experience to their arsenal and further explore specific career pathways in journalism.

“It’s very exciting to have so many young journalists working in the newsroom,” said Eric Barnes, Daily Memphian CEO. “So many of our staff members — myself included — were once interns. To give back this way and support the future of journalism has always been part of The Daily Memphian’s vision.”

The summer interns range in education level from a rising college sophomore to newly-graduated from college and hail from the University of Memphis, Rhodes College and the University of Missouri. The majority of these reporters are from the Memphis-area.

In a previous role, I served as Coordinator of The Teen Appeal, the former Scripps-Howard city-, then county-wide high school newspaper program, where I worked with dozens of students from the area to publish a monthly print product and newspaper. One of the main reasons I joined The Daily Memphian in 2018 was the prospect of being involved with a program with burgeoning journalists.

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When The Daily Memphian hosted interns two years ago, I felt incredibly proud that one of those interns, Hira Qureshi, had been a part of The Teen Appeal during my tenure. (She now covers food and drink for the South Jersey area at the Courier Post, Burlington County Times and Daily Journal.)

I was excited to work alongside her in the newsroom; I’m equally excited to now lead the internship program.

After this summer’s program concludes, The Daily Memphian plans to bring in more interns in the future, starting as soon as the fall. (Email me if you have interest, with both a resume and writing samples).

I’m proud to introduce these five reporters and hope you will look forward to seeing news produced by their hands. These young people are the future, the next generation of journalism. 

But, before you read their work, meet the interns:

Aarron Fleming, recent University of Memphis graduate

Carmen Darden, recent University of Memphis graduate

Courtney Wilson, University of Memphis

Kofi Whitehead, Rhodes College

Mikayla Higgins, University of Missouri