Looking for some behind-the-scenes stories? These two Eagle interns hope to have them

When a lot of Wichitans were hunkered down during Tuesday’s rain deluge, Allison Campbell was trudging through Highland Cemetery, snapping photos for a Wichita Eagle article.

The intrepid Campbell is one of two interns who are working for the publication this summer.

Ainsley Smyth, who said she spent Tuesday ”safe in the office calling school board candidates,” is the other.

Both live in Kansas and have attended Wichita State University, where Campbell just graduated and Smyth will be a senior.

Campbell said she was a military brat who was born in Germany and spent a substantial amount of time in South Africa, where her mother was born, before her family eventually landed in Holton, Kan.

That’s where she graduated high school and where her parents still live.

“My teenage angst was lived out there.”

However, it was when she was visiting South Africa at around age 8 when the power of what journalism can do struck her.

Campbell saw a copy of Time with a photo of a highway she knew in Johannesburg with an accompanying story on some of the most unequal places in the world. On one side of the road were dilapidated houses. On the other were more were beautiful homes with pools.

“That picture really, really stuck with me,” said Campbell, who had been born following apartheid. “It opened my eyes in a way that I think was discomforting but was a much-needed discomfort.”

An incredible high school journalism teacher further inspired her, as did getting to know the staff at the Sunflower at WSU.

“Their work was astounding.”

Campbell’s work came to be as well. She was named the Kansas Collegiate Media Journalist of the Year.

“It gives me goosebumps to be able to give back to people,” she said.

Just like the Time photo did for her, Campbell said she likes that she can show diversity in communities so people ”can really transform how they live and conduct their lives.”

Smyth, who is from Lenexa, wasn’t interested in journalism until high school when she joined the newspaper staff where some friends were. That’s when she found something else that journalism offers.

“I liked knowing sort of the behind the scenes of my school.”

Smyth said she enjoyed having a different way to interact with teachers through her work, too.

Last summer, Smyth interned at local NPR affiliate KMUW.

This summer, she said she’s likely going to cover a range of topics for The Eagle.

So far, that includes an entertainment and environmental story and a look at improvements at Clapp Park.

Smyth, who plans to make a career of journalism, said she hopes to do local government stories, too, for that same behind-the-scenes knowledge she sought in high school.

“That kind of interests me.”

This story was originally published June 7, 2025 at 4:04 AM.