Eleven paid interns will gain hands-on experience in preparation for future careers in journalism, media and more
We are pleased to welcome 11 paid interns to the KUT and "Texas Standard" newsrooms and KUTX this summer. Over the next few months, they'll gain practical, real-world experiences to prepare them for careers in journalism, media production and more.
Simón Marulanda-Mesa and Ezra Gomez will work with the KUT and KUTX audio production and engineering team. They’ll gain experience using the tools of the trade in Studio 1A and the news talk studios, while learning best practices for mixing and recording.
Marulanda-Mesa is a senior Radio-Television-Film (RTF) major and Latino Media Arts & Studies minor at The University of Texas at Austin (UT) who first began his exploration of electronic music production and DJing at 12. Since 2022, he has been an Audio Director at UT’s student radio station, KVRX.
Gomez is a rare returning intern. After embedding with the KUTX music team last fall, the recent RTF and sociology graduate is now expanding on his production chops.
On the newsroom side, Aislyn Gaddis, Adam Regalado, and McKenzie Nabi join the “Texas Standard” team as interns.
Gaddis is a senior journalism major at UT, with certificates in core texts and ideas and elements of computing. She brings with her a wealth of prior experience in audio production. She’s worked with The Drag Audio production house and was the audio editor for “The Daily Texan” and an intern for KERA’s “Think.”
Regalado is a current senior at The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), studying multimedia journalism – and his prior work shows his interest in different media. He was a staff reporter with Borderzine.com and now works with UTEP’s “The Prospector” newspaper where he edits multimedia packages and is host of The Prospector Podcast.
Nabi is a senior journalism major at UT who has been freelancing during her time in school. She has a love for long-form narrative writing and audio production. Nabi says growing up in rural East Texas made her passionate about raising up marginalized voices in her stories and making reliable news more accessible to everyone.
The KUT newsroom is also welcoming three emerging journalists. Lucciana Choueiry and Corinne Piorkowski will work primarily with the audio news teams, while Michelle Tamayo will focus her efforts supporting KUT News digital platforms.
Choueiry is a junior journalism major at Texas State University with a minor in media studies. She currently serves as the news editor of “The University Star.” She has prior internship experience, including at a nonprofit news outlet in Beirut, Lebanon. Choueiry grew up in Lebanon where she learned English, Arabic and French fluently.
Piorkowski is a rising junior journalism major pursuing a minor in Communication Studies at UT. She has experience with both “The Daily Texan” and The Drag Audio. Piorkowski says she feels happiest when she is writing any feature story, but also loves reporting on public education.
Tamayo is a graduating senior from UT with a major in journalism and minor in women and gender studies. She’s worked as a producer and reporter for the UT student effort Reporting Texas TV and anchored and wrote for Texas News Primetime.
Supporting the visual storytelling team at KUT and KUTX this summer are Ry Olszewski and Manoo Sirivelu.
Olszewski is a journalism graduate from UT. He has photography experience with student outlets including Reporting Texas, “The Daily Texan” and “Afterglow Magazine.”
Sirivelu is currently pursuing a B.A. in Plan II Honors at UT. He was previously an Associate Photo Editor at “The Daily Texan” and the Design Editor of “Apricity Magazine.”
Rounding out our summer internship program is Sara Kinney, a senior majoring in journalism and microbiology. She will support the KUT and KUTX projects team. Kinney worked her way up to become an executive producer at The Drag Audio Production House and is the creative director at BurntXOrange and the former design editor of “The Daily Texan.”
KUT and KUTX paid internships are offered in the summer, fall and spring. They’re made possible thanks to support from members. Applications are open on a rolling basis, and anyone is welcome to apply. For more information, look for the posting at kut.org/jobs.
