From the Ukrainian war zone to climate change, UR student journalists have been reporting from the front lines on some of the world’s biggest stories.

These students aren’t seeking to meet any degree requirements. Instead they want to gain real newsroom experiences after studying and practicing journalism on campus, said Shahan Mufti, associate professor and chair of the journalism department.

“Our students catch the journalism bug in the classroom,” Mufti said. “It’s during the internship that it turns into a full-blown journalism fever for many of them.”

Mufti points out that most journalism majors complete an internship that aligns with their passions. “Even for students who have no plans to practice journalism as a profession, the experiences in newsrooms can be a defining one,” he said. “We’ve seen students propelled into fields of law, social work, finance, even sports or entertainment after their internships.”

Approaching the front lines of war

Drawn into current events in the former Soviet Union republic through her history studies, Senior Mado Long never expected to travel to Ukraine. But when war broke out, she knew many important stories would need to be told.

Already headed to Prague for a semester abroad, Long applied for and received a Pulitzer Center Reporting Fellowship to interview Ukrainian refugees about their national identity, since many were now in the Czech Republic.

She soon learned her angle had been widely covered. Unfazed, Long took a pair of eight-hour bus rides toward the war zone — stopping in Lviv on Ukraine’s western border to find an underreported story to fit Pulitzer’s mission.

While she sat in the town square, a bugle sounded, conversation and traffic stopped, and a hearse passed with the body of a Ukrainian soldier recently killed in battle. Being a witness to the crowd performing the sign of the cross steered her toward her story.

“The common thread was their strong Ukrainian national identity tied with their faith,” said Long, who was named a regional Society of Professional Journalists finalist for student in-depth reporting. “Catholicism is a minority religion in Ukraine, but it serves as a microcosm for how Ukrainians are expressing their national identity in the midst of that war.”

Delving into climate change

As a Dow Jones News Fund intern, Ananya Chetia spent 10 days in May at Arizona State University training as a digital media intern. From there, she headed to Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Inside Climate News, an environmental science online news organization.

Living in Saudi Arabia since age 5, Chetia will return to campus this fall as an executive editor of The Collegian. Although she initially planned to study English and become a professor, she switched to journalism because she was captivated by the chance to be a storyteller. “Stories connect humans, remind us about our morals, reinforce or inspire new beliefs, and shape our identity,” she said.

At Inside Climate News, she is speaking with scientists and sources affected by climate change. “People have had to adjust to constant floodings, heat waves and storms with minimal support from their government,” said Chetia, who singled out a recent story where she documented and photographed methane tracking in Richmond. “There’s a political and social angle to the climate crisis, and that’s where the storytelling exists for me. The emotions and struggles it takes to combat climate change has a lasting effect on you, and not enough people speak on that.”

As a news reporter, she embraces the rush of excitement as she sends a final piece to her editor.

“My dream journalism assignment would be to report on how artificial intelligence affects recent college grads just entering the job force,” Chetia said. “I question whether AI is helping new employees or challenging them dangerously to become more work oriented and more daunted by technology.”

Explaining the impact of politics

May graduate Jackie Llanos spent the first half of June in Washington, getting an insider’s crash course on political reporting. She had earned a spot in the Politico Journalism Institute, which prepares diverse voices for news careers.

Llanos, a Bogota native who is bilingual, first tasted political reporting as a Virginia Mercury intern, where she learned about the state through its representatives’ eyes. She’s now on the job with the Florida Phoenix, another digital outlet.

“What I like about political reporting is that you’re able to tell people: ‘This is how this law is going to apply to you,’” said Llanos.

In Florida, her focus includes the Latinx population, at a time when topics of social justice are getting more attention. “Those issues affect all of us, but they cannot be fully covered by people who don’t experience those problems,” she said. “If you’re a person of color, you get a different perspective for how these things can affect individuals in your community.”