The Spokesman-Review’s Teen Journalism Institute is back again for the fourth consecutive year

For many high schoolers in Spokane, summer is defined by its sunny days at the lake, scenic drives around Eastern Washington and pleasant nights spent with friends and family.

But for one group of local high school students, this summer will be different than any they’ve experienced before.

For the fourth consecutive year, The Spokesman-Review is the only newspaper in the country offering paid internships to high school students. In 2021, there were four. In 2022, there were six. In 2023, there were eight.

Now, in 2024, The Spokesman-Review newsroom welcomes 10 high schoolers from a variety of schools across Eastern Washington.

The paper’s Teen Journalism Institute continues to accept more and more students each year because so many strong applicants have applied as word spreads about the program. Four of this year’s interns this year go to Lewis and Clark, two go to North Central, and the other four attend Ridgeline, Gonzaga Prep, Liberty and Bryant/TEC.

The Teen Journalism Institute, funded by a grant from Bank of America, hopes to provide these high schoolers with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work closely with reporters and editors in The Spokesman-Review newsroom. Over the course of eight weeks, starting this past Monday, the interns will learn the fundamentals of journalism, write news and feature stories for publication, attend daily news meetings with editors and interview renowned members of the Spokane community.

While it’s only been a week into the program, the interns have hit the ground running. Some of them are working on Hoopfest stories, one is working on a story about the public health toll of loneliness and others are working on election stories. Some are working on tax levy stories, others are helping the K-12 reporter with securing teen sources and finding story tips. Each of them already has their hands full with stories and the summer has just started.

This year is also the first year the interns have a designated newsroom editor, Alayna Shulman, to help them along their journalistic journey. They also have me, an alum assistant who graduated from the program in 2022, to provide additional support as they get adjusted to the inner workings of a newsroom.

In a world marred with uncertainty over the future, this batch of interns is the fourth edition of a project that aims to change high school students into capable young journalists.

Journalism is essential for democracy to operate. Young people are the future of our democracy. So why not combine the two into something worthwhile?