Purpose: The purpose of this internship was to support WUSF Public Media's 2026 Florida Voter Guide by researching political candidates, communicating with campaigns, and helping collect accurate, nonpartisan information for voters. The goal was to make candidate information easy for the public to access before the election.
My Role: News Intern, researcher, and communications assistant.
Tools Used: Email, Google Docs, Google Sheets, online research databases, candidate websites, news articles, and official government websites.
Process: I started by researching candidates running in Florida elections and gathering information from reliable sources. I reached out to campaigns through professional emails, followed up when necessary, and tracked responses to candidate surveys. When campaigns did not respond, I researched candidates' public statements, interviews, and official websites to accurately summarize their positions. Throughout the internship, I organized information, fact-checked sources, and worked closely with my editor to make sure everything was accurate and ready for publication.
Final Deliverables: My work contributed to WUSF's 2026 Florida Voter Guide by helping gather candidate responses, researching candidate positions, and organizing information that was published for voters.
What I Learned: This internship strengthened my research, writing, and professional communication skills. I became more confident writing professional emails, fact-checking information, and managing multiple assignments independently. It also gave me a better understanding of the work that goes into creating accurate, nonpartisan election coverage and showed me how important clear communication and attention to detail are in journalism and public media