The McGraw Internships

A core mission of the McGraw Center for Business Journalism is to promote the development of future business journalists by providing young reporters with the training and skills needed to succeed in the field. In addition to providing scholarships for a number of students at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York  each year who specialize in business reporting, the McGraw Center also offer stipends to several business journalism students each summer who undertake an internship at a media company. The stipends allow students to gain valuable training through journalism internships that would otherwise be unpaid, thereby grounding their studies in on-the-job experience.

The McGraw Center is proud to have awarded internship stipends to the following students:


The McGraw Interns – Class of 2023


 

Andrew Ancheta

Ancheta spent his summer as an intern at the Mott Haven Herald and Hunts Point Express. His reporting focused on the issues facing businesses and communities in the South Bronx, including local efforts to adapt to climate change, and the environmental impacts of new logistics centers in Hunts Point. A 2007 graduate of Macalester College in Minnesota, with a double major in math and history, he worked as a travel journalist in China and a cryptocurrency reporter for a blockchain news startup before deciding to return to graduate school at Newmark. He chose to study data and financial journalism because he wants to understand the numbers that make the world move. After graduating, he hopes to report on the intersection of science and the economy as the world adapts to a changing climate. 

Gerard Edic

Edic worked at the Prison Journalism Project over the summer, where he edited the works of incarcerated writers. A Kansas City native, he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in journalism, specializing in strategic communication, from the University of Missouri in 2017. He spent a year working in public relations before moving into local journalism as a general assignment reporter for The Greenwood Commonwealth, a daily newspaper in the Mississippi Delta. His enterprise reporting on the trauma of gun violence in Leflore County and potential solutions to curbing it won first place investigative awards in the Mississippi Press Association’s Better Newspaper Paper contest. He chose to pursue the business and economics reporting concentration to get a better grasp of how financial and economic institutions such as Wall Street and the Federal Reserve work, and to understand the massive influence money plays in any economy. After graduation he hopes to report on policy, or to work directly on policy issues through a staff job with a think tank, advocacy organization or on Capitol Hill.

 

Francisco Uranga

Uranga spent his internship as a reporting fellow at The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit newsroom in Austin that covers state politics and policy. His reporting focused on economic issues and education, such as the impact of legislation on construction workers, Texas semiconductor incentive laws, and the effect of debt on students. After graduating as an industrial engineer from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, he worked as a business consultant for six years. In 2015 he studied at the journalism school run by El Pais, the Spanish newspaper. He worked there for a year covering economics, then returned to Argentina to edit a digital magazine focused on economic development. A student in the bilingual Spanish language program at the J-School, he plans to continue covering business after graduation, with a focus on how the economy affects Latino communities in the U.S.

 


The McGraw Interns – Class of 2021


 

Angel Adegbesan

Adegbesan worked with the Editorial team at Skift, a travel trade publication, during her internship. She covered a range of stories, including a CEO interview, a mega-brand hotel earnings call and an in-depth feature on the impact international students have on the travel economy. A 2020 graduate of CUNY’s York College with a B.A in Journalism, she has always had a passion for telling stories. She worked her way up on the editorial staff at York’s college newspaper, eventually becoming the editor-in-chief. She decided to concentrate on business and economics journalism because she realized the economy is at the intersection of almost every story, especially during the pandemic. She believes an understanding of the economy will enable her to tell better stories.

Angela Palumbo

Palumbo spent the summer interning at WBAI, a public radio station based in New York City. She graduated with honors from SUNY’s College at Cortland in 2020 with a BA in communications and journalism and a minor in professional writing. Palumbo’s favorite project while at WBAI was writing and recording community bulletin boards each week that advertised local happenings around New York. She discovered a passion for audio production while at Cortland, and decided to focus on business coverage at Newmark because she believes every story has an economic angle. She particularly loves pieces that focus on people and how they make a living Her goal is to work as a producer for a podcast that produces such stories.   

 

Allison Smith

Smith interned at Crain’s Detroit Business, where she covered the city’s economic recovery. She wrote numerous features on the pandemic’s impact on restaurants and other businesses, the plastics industry, the emerging non-alcoholic beverage market and burnout among city workers. After graduating in 2016 from Hunter College with a bachelor’s degree in English Literature, Smith moved to Bangkok, where she wrote for outlets like Travel + Leisure Southeast AsiaAFAR Magazine and DestinAsian. Since then, she’s written for Grub Street, and her investigative reporting is forthcoming at The Guardian. Smith chose the business concentration because she believes business is at the core of any story. She hopes to help readers make sense of the world by monitoring the financial dealings of companies.


The McGraw Interns – Class of 2020


 

Suzannah Cavanaugh

Cavanaugh spent the summer at Crain’s New York Business, where she covered the city’s post-pandemic economic reopening. Her reporting has focused on everything from the impact on city restaurants to breaking news on the budget deficit. After graduating in 2015 with a B.A. in English from Temple University, Cavanaugh freelanced for the Philadelphia Gay News before applying to the Newmark J-School. Initially planning to write about culture, she switched to the business concentration because she wanted to gain a better understanding of economic systems. Having begun to study business reporting just as the pandemic shuttered the nation’s economy, covering its fallout has cemented her interest in macroeconomics and government spending. She plans to continue that coverage at a business magazine or public radio outlet after graduation.

Jill Shah

Shah worked with the Features department of the Los Angeles Times during her internship. She wrote a range of stories, including features on mental health, racism and the reopening of businesses after months of pandemic-related shutdowns. A 2013 graduate from Northwestern University with a B.A. in Anthropology, she worked for six years in nonprofit tech before applying to the J-School. She decided to become a journalist in order to tell stories about the economic circumstances of working-class people in America, especially immigrant families like her own.

 

Samuel Sharpe

A 2013 graduate of the Eugene Lang College at the New School with a degree in Culture and Media Studies, Sharpe interned at The Wire China, a new weekly digital magazine focused on China’s global economic impact founded by former New York Times Shanghai bureau chief David Barboza. He has reported on Chinese government-linked firms receiving U.S. bailout funds, China’s emerging electric vehicle market and the semiconductor industry. After graduating from the New School, Sharpe worked in marketing at tech startups and non-profits for several years before deciding to switch careers and study business journalism. He believes every story, in cause or effect, is ultimately a business story, and his goal is to shed light on the ever-increasing power and influence that the tech sector wields in our everyday lives. 

 


The McGraw Interns – Class of 2019


 

Spencer Lee

Lee spent the summer as a radio newsroom intern at WNYC, New York’s NPR affiliate. A 1993 graduate of the University of Washington with a BA in Russian, he turned to journalism after working in different writing and project management roles in the travel industry and doing public health research. Lee decided to switch careers because journalism is a field that rewards the curious and permits him to combine storytelling and media production. He chose to study business reporting because he enjoys seeing the many ways a single economic issue has wide-ranging effects on different populations. 

Noah Lewis

Lewis worked as a development intern at Show of Force, a documentary production company based in New York City. During his internship, he helped research and develop documentary features to be pitched to major studios. Lewis graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2014 with a degree in Art History. After graduation, he spent several years working for an award-winning terrazzo company in Columbus, Ohio, working on projects at Ohio State University, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, and the John Glenn International Airport. He decided to change careers and come to the Newmark J-School because he wanted to work creatively and to tell compelling stories that make an impact. He chose to study business journalism because he  believes it provides valuable skills which will enable him to report on a wide range of subjects upon graduation. 

 

Megan Myscofski

Myscofski interned during the summer at Montana Public Radio, as well as with Threshold, a podcast about climate change. After graduating from NYU in 2013 with a B.A. in Comparative Literature, she spent several years working for a non-profit that facilitates high school student exchanges before coming to the Newmark J-School. Myscofski chose the business concentration because she believes all stories have a money angle. She hopes to continue reporting on business and the environment for public radio when she finishes the program. 

 

Nikitha Sattiraju

Sattiraju worked as a reporter for Cannabis Wire over the summer. She covered the politics surrounding the industry – including legislation, lobbying, and campaign finance – as well as its emerging agricultural and business practices. After graduating with a Bachelor’s in Mass Media and a post-graduate diploma in Journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications in Mumbai, she worked for YourStory Media in India as a freelance journalist covering farming, climate change, sustainable development, and health. Sattiraju came to the Newmark J-School to study data and interactive journalism. She has emphasized business journalism because she wants to cover global agriculture upon graduation.

 

Lukas Southard

Southard spent his summer internship at Futuro Media Group working on Latino USA, a weekly radio show distributed through NPR.  He helped edit stories, provided fact-checking and produced several profiles of his own. Southard graduated in 2007 from the University of California, Santa Cruz with a BA in History of Arts and Visual Culture and a minor in Education. He spent the next 10+ years working as a chef, a sommelier and a whole-animal butcher, among other roles within the food industry. He enrolled at the Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY to learn to report on the food business. He hopes to cover the changing landscape of the world’s food systems and the economic factors that drive the food markets. 

 


The McGraw Interns – Class of 2018


 

Matthew Cutler

Cutler spent the summer as a general assignment intern at KUT, the public radio station in Austin. After graduating from the New College of Florida in 2013 with a B.A. in economics, Cutler worked as an engineer, producer and reporter for various radio outlets – WSLR in Sarasota, and WBAI and Clocktower Radio in New York — before coming to the Newmark J-School. Cutler entered journalism to cover the political economy of media and technology. He chose the business concentration because he is interested in the American economy and role of companies in creating its culture.

Graison Dangor

Dangor interned during the summer with The Bridge, a digital site that covers business news in Brooklyn. He is a 2014 graduate of the University of Minnesota, with a B.A. in English. Before coming to the Newmark J-School, Dangor worked as a copywriter and freelance reporter for the Star Tribune, Minnesota’s largest newspaper, and for MinnPost, a nonprofit news site. He returned to journalism school to learn how to manage large reporting projects and to develop investigative skills. His goal is to use the knowledge he gains in the business concentration to pursue stories on the business of mental healthcare, and to report on how well-being is affected by the economy.

 

Scarlett Kuang

Kuang worked as an intern with the digital story telling team at Philly.com. A Chinese native, she graduated from Toronto’s York University in 2015 with a degree in communications. She worked as bilingual reporter and videographer in the Vancouver bureau of Xinhua, China’s national news agency, before enrolling at the Newmark J-School. She chose the business concentration because she wants to incorporate economic issues and analysis into the stories she covers.


The McGraw Interns – Class of 2017


 

Oscar Gonzalez

Gonzalez spent the summer as a general assignment intern working on local news at WNYC, the New York public radio station. A native of San Antonio, Texas who received a bachelor’s degree in communications from Texas A&M University-San Antonio in 2016, He was the editor-in-chief of the student digital outlet, The Mesquite, while an undergraduate, and has also written regularly on technology for his own news website since 2008. He chose the business concentration because he realized that money played a key role in many stories he’s written, on subjects as varied as technology, politics and local news. His goal is to take what he learned in journalism school, along with his previous experience, to dive further into overlooked stories.

Teddy Grant

Grant worked as an intern at DNAInfo, a digital site that concentrates on New York City neighborhoods. His beats included breaking news, city events, politics and culture. A 2012 graduate of the University of South Florida with a Bachelor’s degree in professional and technical writing, Grant worked in the health insurance industry before applying to J-School, which offers him a unique perspective on health-related news. He is interested in the intersection of political, business and technology news, and chose to study business journalism to better understand the role money plays in the different sectors.

 

Liz Ramanand

Ramanand split her summer internship doing work for three jointly-managed sites, ScottishFinancialNews.com, NorthernFinancialReview.com and Centerforce’s IPStrategyNews.com. She covered international business news for the trio, in addition to managing their social media accounts. The Queens native graduated in 2011 from Brooklyn College with a dual degree in Journalism and English. Prior to coming to the journalism school, Ramanand worked for six years as an arts and music journalist and photographer for Townsquare Media. She has long been interested in combining her passion for the arts with her interest in business, and hopes to develop a strong business journalism career when she graduates.

 


The McGraw Interns – Class of 2016


 

Tanvi Acharya

Acharya interned at InvestmentNews, a digital news site and weekly magazine for financial advisors. She was a general assignment reporter covering stories on the financial services industry. A native of Mumbai, India, Acharya graduated from Rutgers University in 2015 with a major in journalism and double minor in English and economics. She hopes to combine her passion for economics with her interest in journalism to write stories that help society understand this complex topic.

Josh Keefe

Keefe spent the summer at The New York Observer, where he wrote on subjects ranging from the financial difficulties facing circuses to rooftop vineyards in Brooklyn. His work previously appeared in The New York Times, Slate, Gothamist, DNAinfo and the Bangor Daily News. The Maine native, a 2007 graduate of Skidmore College in English, chose the business concentration in order to be able to “follow the money” and understand the economic motivations underlying the stories he covers.

 

Zameena Mejia

Mejia covered the sportswear industry for Footwear News, reporting on retail companies, fashion industry trends, tech and legislation for the publication’s consumer website and large format print magazine. A magna cum laude graduate of SUNY New Paltz with a double major in journalism and Spanish, her goal is to write stories about business and the economy that show how they impact the lives of young consumers, especially millennials, Hispanics and women.

Harini Chakrapani

Chakrapani interned at Crain’s New York Business, where she wrote news stories about financial deals, acquisitions and startups in the New York City tech industry. A native of Chennai, India and a graduate of the University of Madras, she worked as an entertainment reporter for a Bollywood magazine in Dubai before coming to the Newmark J-School. She is passionate about technology and healthcare and hopes to break the biggest business news stories from these industries.


The McGraw Interns – Class of 2015 


 

Danni Santana

Santana spent the summer as an intern at Crain’s New York Business, where he worked on the web desk and wrote stories as a general assignment reporter.  A Bronx native who graduated from CUNY’s York College in 2013 with a degree in Journalism and a minor in Communications Technology. Santana covered York’s athletics department for the school newspaper. He hopes to combine his love of sports with the training he received at the Newmark J-School to cover sports business.

Following graduation, he was hired as an associate editor at Insurance Networking News.

Rajashree Chakravarty

Chakravary interned during the summer at Source Media, a digital site for financial advisors and other Wall Street professionals. She covered news and events, writing stories for its two publications, Financial Planning and On Wall Street. A native of Kolkata, India, she wrote for local travel and tourism web sites after receiving her masters degree in English from Burdwan University in West Bengal in 2005. She freelanced for numerous publications after moving to the United States with her husband in 2008. Her goal is to do business journalism that makes a difference; to write about economic and business stories in a compelling way that helps average people better understand this complex subject.

Following graduation, she is continuing to freelance for publications both in the U.S. and abroad.


The McGraw Interns – Class of 2014 


 

Mark Fahey

Fahey spent the summer of 2014 at Crain’s New York Business, where he split his time between writing news stories and assisting in research and web development. Fahey is especially interested in the economics of agriculture, real estate, technology and any project that involves sifting through large sets of data. After graduating with a degree in biology from Washington University in St. Louis in 2010, his first feature stories were published in Thailand in 2011. Mark covered education, cops, courts and the economy for the Springfield News-Sun and Washington Court House Record-Herald in Ohio before enrolling at the Newmark J-School. 

Following graduation in December, Fahey is now working as a reporter and data specialist at a new data unit being set up at CNBC.com.

Brianna McGurran

McGurran interned during the summer of 2014 at Oregon Public Broadcasting, Portland’s NPR station. McGurran helped produce the daily live news show Think Out Loud, which covers business, politics and the arts. McGurran previously held an internship at public radio station WNYC, where she wrote scripts and edited audio for broadcast. Among her favorite assignments for WNYC: covering the economic impact of New York Mayor Bill de Blasio’s new affordable housing plan. McGurran graduated from New York University in 2009 with a degree in English.

Brianna McGurran is a reporter for NerdWallet, the personal finance site.

Reem Nasr

Nasr worked as an intern in the news department at Michigan Radio during the summer, where she focused on the economic revitalization of Detroit. A graduate of New York University, where she majored in journalism and Middle Eastern studies, Nasr studied broadcast journalism with a concentration in business reporting. A producer of Muslim State of Mind, a weekly radio show that airs on WBAI in New York, she previously served as a producer on the Brian Lehrer Show at WNYC. Reem is a contributor to PolicyMic, a digital news site for millennials. She is of Egyptian and Lebanese descent and is interested in affairs of the Muslim American community. Fluent in English and Arabic, she hopes to continue her journalistic work in America and abroad.

Nasr has begun working as a reporter at CNBC.com.

Max Willens

Willens is a native New Yorker who plans to spend his career covering the economics of entertainment. He spent the summer working at Ad Age, where he focused on music and data projects. After brief stints as a music blogger, DJ, copywriter and social media strategist, he decided to pursue business journalism in earnest in late 2012. His work has appeared online in WIRED, Crain’s New York, The Village Voice and Billboard PRO, and he has blogged for outlets ranging from The New York Times to MIDEM, the largest music business conference in the European Union.  He periodically thinks about leaving New York, but cannot figure out why anyone would want to live anywhere else.

Willens became the media reporter for the International Business Times following graduation, and now works at Digiday.