INTHE NEWS
September 2025 - December 2025
Prepared by The Office of Communications and University Relations
SUNY Institute for Local News Revitalizes Student Reporting Opportunities
September 24, 2025
By Todd Franko
For college journalists, a summer internship working beside seasoned reporters is second to none for skill development, said Susan Mehalick, Managing Editor for News at the Albany Times Union.
The problem for Mehalick and other editors? The number of internships they can offer has usually been zero. The budgets are no longer there. It’s punishing for newsrooms, students and local news’ future.
This summer, the Times Union hosted two interns from the State University of New York Institute for Local News — positions fully funded by the university system.
“Without SUNY ILN sponsoring interns we would not have had any interns this summer. The last time our newsroom budget was able to support interns was the summer of 2023; prior to that, even before the pandemic, it had been several years since we regularly had interns on our staff,” said Mehalick.
SUNY ILN launched in 2024 with 16 campuses active in local news support during the Fall and Spring semesters. This summer, SUNY ILN placed 20 summer interns in 15 newsrooms around New York. The newsrooms varied from legacy print large and small, to broadcast newsrooms, to non-profit startups. The SUNY investment of $80,000 for the internships created vital opportunities for the students as well as the newsrooms.
The once rich environment of summer newsroom internships has disappeared in the last decade or so as the publishing business has cratered. While an enormous setback for newsrooms of many sizes that relied on the summer talent influx, it’s crippling for college students as well as for the industry.
“The way to learn how to be a journalist is to practice journalism,” Mehalick said. “There is only so much someone can learn in a classroom.”
Rodrigo Feijao of the University at Buffalo spent his summer in Rochester with his hometown Democrat and Chronicle.
“Getting an internship locally was extremely important to me because I've wanted to be reporting for my home community for the longest time. Growing up, I had always noticed my neighbors having special mailboxes to receive print versions of the Democrat and Chronicle. So to be a part of it means a lot.”
Mehalick echoes editors around the state that the new SUNY program is a blessing in many ways.
“The media business thrives on youth and also multigenerational newsrooms,” said Mehalick. “Young people bring enthusiasm to their work which can be infectious in a newsroom, which is invaluable. For the interns, the experience of working alongside seasoned reporters and editors is second to none.”
For the students, they faced graduation without a chance for such a summer of professional immersion.
“This internship was huge for me,” said Grace Tran, a SUNY Oneonta senior, who did video production for an Albany community newsroom.
“I had been searching high and low for any media internship, big or small companies, but no luck. This opportunity came to me, and I jumped to work with a multimedia newsroom like Capital Region Independent Media. Working with mainly adults at this internship was a shock to me. During my time in Oneonta, I had worked in studio newsrooms with students and peers. But at this internship, I gained a lot of hands-on experience with professionals who have been in the business for decades. Those are skills you can’t learn anywhere else.”
Alexia Croll was graduating from SUNY Old Westbury without an internship until this new SUNY program emerged. She spent her summer with the Long Island Herald.
“This internship has strengthened my passion for journalism, particularly local news, and I will carry these lessons into the next chapter of my career. I am deeply grateful and honored to be apart of the first SUNY ILN cohort.”
SUNY ILN is an emerging program helping student learning and local news growth in Fall, Spring and Summer. It was launched with funding and organizing help from the Center for Community News at University of Vermont, along with a grant from the Lumina Foundation.
In the Fall 2024 and Spring 2025 semesters, 160 students at SUNY campuses from Buffalo to Long Island produced more than 360 stories for local news partners. The summer 2025 intern reporting created another 300+ stories.
SUNY plans to fund a second summer intern program in summer 2026.
Student intern Alexia Croll of SUNY Old Westbury at the Long Island Herald
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OCTOBER 2, 2025
On the air, and on point, during World College Radio Day
By GREGORY ZELLER //
October 3 is an exciting day for SUNY Old Westbury’s official radio station, which is scheduled to join a worldwide broadcasting event.
Welcome to World College Radio Day, an annual first-Friday-ofOctober collaboration designed to promote college and high school radio stations around the globe. Organized by the New Jerseybased College Radio Foundation, the 24-hour marathon stitches together special programming from schools in 20 countries, all highlighting student-run radio stations as platforms for diverse voices, local news and creative expression.
Four U.S. schools, including SUNY Old Westbury, are part of this year’s epic broadcast, with OWWR (Old Westbury Web Radio) scheduled to take over the broadcast beginning at 11 a.m. Friday.
Joseph Manfredi, a SUNY Old Westbury lecturer and the OWWR station manager, said station staffers were thrilled to participate in an international event that trumpets the “power and impact of college radio on a global scale.”
“World College Radio Day celebrates the power of this medium to share ideas and information within a community – whether that means on campus, in the neighborhood or around the world,” noted Manfredi, an
Radio days: Old Westbury Web Radio has long been a voice for diversity and creativity and on Friday, staffers will share that with the world.
instructor in SUNY Old Westbury’s Media & Communications Program. “We are honored, humbled and proud to continue to be on this platform in our craft.”
College radio fights an uphill battle in the Digital Age, as worldwide listeners increasingly turn toward major-league streaming sources and away from traditional radio options. But as a provider of entertainment and a clearing house for critical news updates, the medium – largely reimagined as “web radio,” in which Internet connectivity replaces traditional radio waves – is alive and well, according to Manfredi.
“Radio still continues to act in the interest, convenience and necessity of the public and still comes in first during any crisis,” the station manager said. “This medium has been bringing people together since the industry dawned more than 100 years ago, enabling the importance and power of free speech all along the way.”
In line with World College Radio Day’s 2025 theme (“Tune in to the people”), Production Director Angelina Zavala and other OWWR team members are slated to discuss several hot-button topics with members of the SUNY Old Westbury faculty and greater Long Island community – including Title IX concerns, student immigration issues, campus safety and other issues exacerbated by current White House leadership.
Deliberations on student mental wellness during changing times, artificial intelligence’s role in education and equal opportunities for individuals with disabilities are also planned.
This is not the first time OWWR has participated in a marathon-length college-radio event. With national election hysteria at a fever pitch last November, the station joined Student News Live – a nonpartisan news hub created by the iHeart Radio Network, the NBCU Academy and PBS Newshour Student Reporting Labs – as part of a special 24-hour election-coverage event.
And earlier this year, the SUNY Old Westbury station participated in its 15th Vinylthon, a worldwide collaboration of more than 230 radio stations playing nothing but content from old-style vinyl records. During that April sprint, OWWR earned a “Golden Slipmat Award” (for 24 hours of continuous live airplay) and a “Diamond Slipmat Award” (for 48 hours), ultimately airing 76 consecutive hours of vinyl-exclusive broadcasting.
That was fun for OWWR staffers. But for the web radio station – which provides streaming audio and video content 24 hours a day, seven days a week – participating in World College Radio Day is more of a personal mission, according to Manfredi.
“OWWR is honored to share the stage with so many amazing stations around the globe,” the station manager added. “I am beyond proud of what the entire OWWR team (has) accomplished.”
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Joseph Manfredi: Radio city
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