Politico names Summer 22 interns

Politico managing editor of policy news Clea Benson sent out the following on Thursday:

Greetings all,

We are happy to introduce the summer 2022 class of interns to the newsroom! Many of them have already started, and some will be in our Rosslyn office and in our bureaus, so please come by and say hello if you are in the office.

Best,

Clea, Erica, Karey, Ruairi, Ryan

Matt Berg: Breaking News

Matt Berg is a summer intern on the Breaking News desk. Matt is a Western Massachusetts native and recently graduated from UMass Amherst, where he studied journalism and history. Throughout college, Matt wrote for student publications as well as The Boston Globe, The Daily Beast, and The New York Times. In Matt’s free time, you can find him aimlessly exploring new areas while listening to music, reading Kurt Vonnegut and Joan Didion novels in a nearby park, and cooking vegetarian and vegan food for my friends. After a career in journalism, Matt love to open a café or restaurant in the middle of nowhere and delete Twitter once and for all.

Ellie Borst: E&E

Ellie Borst was born and raised in Phoenix and will start as E&E’s newest reporting intern in July. She graduated in May from Arizona State University with a bachelor’s in journalism and a master’s in legal studies, where she focused on environmental law. During college, she served as executive editor of her university’s student newspaper, The State Press, and interned at The Arizona Republic. She is currently based in Washington, D.C., fact checking claims as an intern for PolitiFact and will stay in D.C. for the remainder of her internship (restaurant/coffee recommendations welcomed). She enjoys sewing, listening to music and taking the long way home.

Sakura Cannestra: CA Bureau

Sakura Cannestra is interning in our California office. She just finished her first year at the UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism and attended UC Berkeley for her bachelor’s degree in English. She also formerly worked at the Daily Californian, covering a broad range of topics including student government and activism, Berkeley’s unhoused population and the COVID-19 pandemic. They’re passionate about how policies impact our daily lives, especially in housing and tech, as well as how to use different online platforms for journalism. She has finally become a plant dad and is an avid bullet-journaler, with strong positive opinions about quick-drying gel pens.

Ella Creamer: Magazine

Ella joined the magazine in the spring and has extended her internship through the summer. She previously worked at Washington Monthly magazine, BBC Radio 4 and the UK Cabinet Office’s Media Monitoring Unit. In 2021, she graduated from Columbia University with a master’s degree in journalism.

Minho Kim: Magazine  

Born and raised in Seoul, Minho Kim became a politics nerd in high school, intrigued by the power games that led to crucial policy decisions. Drawn to journalism’s power to bring clarity to chaos, he headed to Chicago in the summer of 2014 to study journalism and economics at Northwestern University.

Minho took two two-year breaks from his studies, once to join the South Korean military for mandatory service and again in 2020 to defer graduation at the onset of the pandemic. He worked at two different Seoul startups as a communications manager and an editor before joining POLITICO. He graduated from Northwestern in June. Minho loves beach days, art museums, reading novels and listening to jazz, house and R&B music. He wants learn surfing over this summer and is looking for a surf buddy.

Nicolle Liu: China Watcher

Nicolle Liu is a graduate student at New York University, studying journalism, business and economic reporting. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and communication from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She started her career with Reuters Breakingviews as a production assistant. She was also the Financial Times’ Hong Kong Correspondent, where she intensively reported on the 2019 pro-democracy protests. More recently, she worked for the WSJ in New York as a Spring intern covering Cybersecurity.

In her spare time, the Hong Kong citizen enjoys cooking, especially Asian food, for her friends and families. She is also a board game enthusiast! (Always looking for fellow gamers) Aside from US-China relations, she is also passionate about researching triads (organized crime societies) and indie games.

Olivia Olander: Breaking News

Olivia Olander is a breaking news intern from Encinitas, CA. Olivia is a 2022 graduate of Northwestern where she studied journalism and political science and is interested in how policy affects people. Olivia previously interned for the Chicago Tribune, NBC News Digital Politics, Meet the Press and MSNBC. Her favorite recent projects have been on Ukrainians Chicagoans, Illinois education policy, public transit trends and guardianship policy. Outside of journalism, she loves running, baking, and going to trivia religiously every week with her friends. Olivia is originally from the suburbs of San Diego, and yes, she misses the weather. 

Georgia Rosenberg: NYC Bureau

Georgia Rosenberg is interning in New York City. She is a student at Stanford University, where she studies political science and communication and is the executive editor for print at The Stanford Daily. She has a background in political communications and policy and is passionate about the role of effective journalism in informing voters, holding politicians accountable and shedding light on overlooked issues. At The Daily, she has covered and advised reporting on topics from Title IX and the COVID-19 pandemic to student activism and mental health. Georgia also took time off from school during the pandemic to work as a policy consultant for a nonpartisan organization supporting people overcoming barriers to work, including formerly incarcerated individuals. Outside of the newsroom, Georgia loves to cook elaborate meals for friends and family. She is originally from Westchester, NY and now lives in Connecticut.

Julian Shen-Berro: NYC Bureau

Julian Shen-Berro is an editorial intern for POLITICO New York. He is a graduate of Columbia University, where he studied English literature and worked as the managing editor of an investigative journalism magazine. His reporting background has centered on politics, public safety, and Asian American communities. Most recently, Julian served as a breaking news and public safety reporter in Raleigh, North Carolina, working to hold law enforcement agencies accountable in the wake of shootings by police officers and local spending violations. He is originally from Berkeley, California, but now considers New York City home.

Lawrence Ukenye: Defense

Lawrence Ukenye is an editorial intern covering defense at POLITICO. He’s from Bowie, Maryland, and is a rising senior at Temple University where he serves as editor-in-chief for his student newspaper, The Temple News. Lawrence previously interned at The Daily Beast where he covered breaking news, and at Solitary Watch where he reported on the use of solitary confinement in the U.S. during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.