Introducing our Montana summer news interns

Tanner Ecker took the one in the far corner at the beginning of May. A few weeks later, Abigail Landwehr assumed her spot in our space on West Broadway Street. And, on Election Day last week, Alexia Partouche settled into the chair at the last desk.

It’s summer intern season in the world of journalism — and we’ll be reaping the benefits into August with four extra sets of eyes and ears working to serve up more local news and features for you. In addition to our western Montana trio, Shun Graves joined us Monday at the Billings Gazette, where he’ll have the unique opportunity to report for one of the last seven-day print newspapers in the region.

The Gazette is the only remaining major daily print in Montana. There are none in Wyoming, Idaho, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah or Oregon. Only the Seattle Times and Denver Post remain across the region.

They’ve come from near and far — all motivated to learn from our professional journalists, polish their reporting skills and explore this Last Best Place in their free time. Their 10-week paid internships are part of Lee Enterprises’ commitment to boosting local journalism, not only in Montana but in the 70-plus communities across the country where our company serves readers.

We don’t grow local journalism without first growing the journalist. We have previous success stories in our newsrooms — including Griffen Smith and Antonio Ibarra Olivares in Missoula and Christine Compton in Helena, all products of the University of Montana School of Journalism — and we’re fortunate to have the chance to grow four of the more than 50 summer interns in this year’s crop across Lee Enterprises.

A round of introductions:

• Ecker is Treasure State, born and bred: He grew up in Townsend, near Helena, and graduated in December from UM. Ecker “got hooked” on journalism, particularly sports broadcasting, in middle school and his zest has only increased since he found photography after arriving at college. “My passion for learning about anything and everything is at an all-time high, and that’s why I take on different assignments outside of sports to gain knowledge in many subjects,” he says. “Sports might be a huge passion of mine, but I like taking on projects that impact people, because I know there is something important to everyone.”
• A senior-to-be at the University of Missouri, a bastion for journalism education, Landwehr is a reporter and a photographer bundled in one. She jokes that she was given the “no-option-option” of joining the high school newspaper during her sophomore year of high school in Wyoming and, a few years later, is plenty grateful for her then-English teacher Vincent Cappiello’s insistence. “Making connections is what I love most about journalism. Everyone has a story, and that’s what feels important to me,” Landwehr says. “It’s not just about covering the news; it’s about connecting with the community and sharing their stories with others.”
• For Partouche, National Geographic Kids was her gateway to journalism. She started reading the magazine in elementary school and when she got to high school, she says she “leapt at the chance to join my school’s newsmagazine and write interesting articles of my own.” An incoming senior at American University in Washington, D.C., Partouche hopes to challenge herself with reporting out of her comfort zone this summer. “Regardless of whether what I find is good or bad news, I think journalism’s role in making new and pertinent information accessible is really important, because that information and knowledge is necessary for communities to thrive,” she says.
• Just 18, Graves is already through his freshman year at Northwestern University’s prestigious Medill School of Journalism (our Nora Mabie is an alumna, by the way) and amped to get into his first professional internship. “I report local news the same way I consume it: voraciously, all the time,” Graves wrote in a cover letter that captured our attention.

I hope you’ll welcome our new friends to Montana, encourage their ambitions, and provide them with valuable feedback about their work. For local journalism to succeed into the future, we need them.