Four interns with extensive journalism and other experience join The Wichita Eagle

The Wichita Eagle has hired four summer interns who, although still in school, already have a lot experience to bring to the publication.

Here’s who they are.

Germany native Nicole Marie Klevanskaya’s Russian parents moved to the United States after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Russian is her native language, but she spent her formative years in Pittsburg and speaks flawless English as well.

Klevanskaya is graduating this summer from the University of Kansas with dual degrees in journalism and Russian, which she hopes to combine through a career in journalism. She discovered the field in high school.

“I always tell people it was . . . an instantaneous connection.”

Investigative journalism is something that particularly interests her, in part because she said she’s seen the power of news stories to make significant change.

For instance, while still in high school, Klevanskaya wrote a series of stories following a pedestrian accident near a school that resulted in new safety measures. She said it showed her how stories can make an impact, and it’s those kinds of stories she’d like to write in the future.

In the meantime, Klevanskaya said, “I’m so excited to be telling the stories of the Wichita area.”

Emmie Boese is a Valley Center native who is entering her senior year at Wichita State University, where she is majoring in communications with an emphasis in journalism.

“I’ve always been really interested in writing,” she said.

In her senior year of high school, Boese did an internship with the Ark Valley News in Valley Center. She said it was a good experience that prompted her further into journalism.

“Informing people, telling good stories, that’s kind of what sparked my interest.”

Boese said she wants to cover a variety of general stories, but she’s “kind of interested in sports reporting, too.”

She was the assistant sports editor at WSU’s Sunflower student newspaper for a semester, and she said she can see doing that in the future.

Boese also was opinion editor for one semester, and that’s how she knows she doesn’t want to write more editorials.

“Probably not, honestly.”

She said it was a good experience, and she saw results from her writing, such as when Sunflower staff members got better game day parking after she pointed out how they were at a disadvantage previously.

“Things like that were kind of cool, being able to promote change,” Boese said.

What she likes, however, is “just telling the story instead of putting my thoughts out there.”

Lindsay Smith is a Wichita native who will graduate from WSU in December partly because it fits with her schedule.

Partly, though, she said, “I would just love to get in the workforce earlier.”

That’s even though she was editor of the Sunflower for two years and said, “I would love to stay there for the rest of my life, but obviously I can’t.”

Also, the journalism major has already had a lot of journalism experience, including freelancing for the Wichita Business Journal.

“I’m kind of ready to move on to the next chapter.”

Smith said she likes the personal connections she can make through telling people’s stories.

“People trust you to share their stories, and I think that’s what really inspired me to keep going on.”

Smith said she wants to be a well-rounded journalist who covers all kinds of news, but she said she’s especially drawn to feature stories.

“It gives me more flexibility to really dive into into the narrative style of writing.”

Phoenix native Jayati (jay-a-tee) Sharma, whose parents immigrated from India, now lives in Baltimore where late this summer she’ll enter a doctoral program in epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University. That’s where she also earned her masters in genetic epidemiology. Her undergraduate degree was in public health and molecular biology.

“I always knew that I was interested in public health,” Sharma said.

She had done some public health projects in high school and was interested in scientific research as well, so she decided to combine the two.

Later, Sharma said she found genetic epidemiology to be “a nice intersection of both.”

She thought she might want to be a doctor, but Sharma said she realized she was not as interested in individual care.

A couple of months before the pandemic hit, Sharma applied to epidemiology programs and then found she had to pivot a bit to do COVID-related work.

“My interest is still more chronic disease.”

So where does journalism come in?

Sharma said within the academia sphere, she’s seen a lot of writing that doesn’t necessarily translate well into people’s lives or policymakers’ hands. She’d like to change that.

Sharma was the editor of her high school newspaper, and during graduate school, she translated COVID research for the general public.

“I’ve always considered myself a writer over the years.”

A fellowship through the American Association for the Advancement of Science and sponsored by the American Statistical Association is enabling Sharma’s position at The Eagle. She said she hopes to write about public health and genetics but is open to writing about anything related to science or even other fields.

Though she’s not likely to give up science for a career in journalism, Sharma said she hopes to always keep a connection to writing through freelancing.

Through her internship, Sharma said she hopes to develop “a greater appreciation . . . for the kinds of work local journalists have to do.”

She said she wants to keep in mind the importance of building relationships in the community and “holding that trust that papers like The Eagle have.”