June 16, 2025

DENTON (UNT), Texas – Across the state of Texas, 16 high school students have completed the UNT Scripps Howard Fund Emerging Journalists Program Multimedia Workshop and most have landed internships at media outlets in Texas.

The students participated in the multimedia high school workshop June 8-12 on the UNT Denton campus. Students focused on fundamental newsgathering, ethical reporting, writing across platforms, journalism industry standards and style, and multimedia storytelling. Upon successful completion of the workshop, students were placed in a paid internship with a media partner in their local market.

Grace Hu, a student at William P. Clements High School in the Houston area, said the workshop “was very valuable in the sense that it gave me hands-on experience with creating a multimedia project, from pitching the stories to finding and interviewing sources to actually creating all of the different parts that would go together. I learned a lot about video editing, a medium I was previously unfamiliar with, and I was able to improve on my writing skills with lots of help and advice from experts. I was able to get a feel for the real newsroom experience, being able to bounce ideas off of my group mates and learn how to work collaboratively with other student journalists. I also found all of the guest speakers very insightful. I was able to directly interact with professionals in the field and get an insider’s look into my dream career.”

Seven Jamison, a North Garland High School student, said the immersive workshop also helped him hone his skills, and “I learned that I always must have a plan B.”

The Scripps Howard Emerging Journalists program is part of a multi-year grant awarded the Frank W. and Sue Mayborn School of Journalism, said Dorothy Bland, program director and professor at the Mayborn School. She said the program is designed to help prepare the next generation of journalists and ensure that newsrooms better represent the broader population.

“Thanks to the generosity of the Scripps Howard Fund grant, this program has helped strengthen skills for nearly 100 emerging journalists and provided funding for related paid internships” since 2021, said Bland. She founded UNT’s multimedia high school workshop at UNT in 2014.

Bland added, “We are extremely grateful to the Scripps Howard Fund, media partners, faculty, staff and others for making this program successful. We are committed to developing the next generation of news talent as well as strengthening community journalism and democracy.”

This year’s Emerging Journalists Program class, chosen from applicants from across the state, include the following listed below. Most have been placed in paid internships this summer.

• Marli Field, Coppell High School
• Grace Hu, William P. Clements High School
  • Media Partner: Community Impact in the Houston area
• Lily Hudman, Azle High School
  • The Azle News
• Seven Jamison, North Garland High School
  • Media Partner: Texas Metro News in Dallas
• Natalie Johnson
  • William P. Clements High School
  • Media Partner: Community Impact in the Houston area
• Destiny Kombe-Kajue, Coppell High School
  • Texas Metro News in the Dallas-Fort Worth area
• Siddartha Reddy Manubothu
  • Media Partner: Star Local Media in Frisco
• Trisha Panicker, Prosper High School
  • Media Partner: Community Impact in the Dallas-Fort Worth area
• Sophia Quintero Pietri, McKinney High School
  • Media Partner: Star Local Media in McKinney
• Isaiah Rodriguez, Keller High School
  • Media Partner: Fort Worth Report
• Anika Shah, The Hockaday School
  • Texas Metro News in Dallas
• Emaan Shahzeb, Leadership Prep School
  • Media Partner: Community Impact in the Dallas-Fort Worth area
• Sulwa Siraj, North Garland High School
  • Media Partner: Texas Metro News in Dallas
• Kareena Varughese, Wakeland High School
  • Media Partner: Star Local Media in Frisco
• Jay Vernekar, Coppell High School
  • Media Partner: The Dallas Morning News
• Tierney Withrow, Argyle High School
  • Media Partner: Post-Signal in Pilot Point

For more information on the Emerging Journalists Program, visit journalism.unt.edu.

About the Frank W. and Sue Mayborn School of Journalism

The Mayborn School of Journalism, the only named and endowed school at the University of North Texas, trains nearly 1,000 students in print/digital journalism, broadcast journalism, photojournalism, advertising and public relations. The Mayborn School is also home to the nationally known Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference.

About the Scripps Howard Fund

The Scripps Howard Foundation supports philanthropic causes important to The E.W. Scripps Company (NASDAQ: SSP) and the communities it serves, with a special emphasis on journalism education, excellence in journalism and childhood literacy. At the crossroads of the classroom and the newsroom, the Fund is a leader in supporting journalism education, scholarships, internships, minority recruitment and development and First Amendment causes. The Scripps Howard Awards stand as one of the industry’s top honors for outstanding journalism and the Foundation’s annual “If You Give a Child a Book…” childhood literacy campaign has distributed more than 352,000 new books to children in need across the nation since 2017. In support of its mission to create a better-informed world, the Foundation also partners with Scripps brands to create awareness of local issues and support impactful organizations to drive solutions that help build thriving communities.

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