Meet the 2025 Kansas City Star summer intern class
The Kansas City Star is proud to announce our 2025 summer intern class.
Many of the students selected for our internship program come to us with local ties to the Kansas City area.
The paid journalism positions include breaking news coverage, local government and state legislative reporting, and audience engagement.
Many of The Star’s current newsroom team members started at the company as interns. The Star is proud to continue the tradition by selecting more top student journalists this year.
Please join us in welcoming these young journalists to our newsroom. And as always, if you have a news tip, please share it with us here.
Maddie Carr — Breaking News
Maddie Carr is a junior at Emporia State University from Bonner Springs. She is majoring in sociology and minoring in communication. She is the editor-in-chief of The Bulletin, ESU’s student newspaper. She’s also worked for The Bulletin as a staff writer and the opinion editor and for the Johnson County Post as a freelancer covering the city of Olathe. In 2024, Maddie became the first college student to be named Kansas Journalist of the Year by the Kansas Press Association. She loves a good iced coffee, eccentric earrings, and crocheting in her free time.
Madeline King — Local Government
Madeline King is a junior at Northwestern University, pursuing a double major in journalism and political science, as well as an integrated marketing communications certificate. She is from the Kansas City area and is excited to cover the community where she grew up. At school, Madeline writes for The Daily Northwestern, the university’s student newspaper. She has served as the arts & entertainment editor and currently edits investigative pieces as the news organization’s In Focus editor. Madeline says that she is passionate about Kesem Northwestern, an organization that provides year-round support and free summer camps to children ages 6-18 in the Chicago area affected by a parent’s cancer.
Ramal Nasim — Breaking News
Ramal Nasim was born in Karachi, Pakistan, but has lived in the Kansas City metro since she was 4 years old. A graduate of Olathe Northwest, Ramal has attended both Johnson County Community College and the University of Kansas. She is a junior at KU’s William Allen White School of Journalism and writes for The University Daily Kansan. During her free time, Ramal loves to read and paint.
Zuri Primos — Breaking News
Zuri Primos is a sophomore at Dillard University majoring in communication and minoring in urban studies and public policy. Zuri joins The Star as an HBCU News Intern. The internship brings her back to her hometown of Kansas City from New Orleans, where Dillard is located. She is the editor-in-chief for Dillard’s student newspaper, The Courtbouillon, and is vice president of the university’s chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists. She is passionate about writing, community work and the arts.
Colin Rhoads — Audience Service
Colin Rhoads is a graduate student at the University of Missouri-Columbia, where he also obtained his undergraduate degree in journalism while working in the university’s newsrooms. He is from St. Louis. Colin is writing his master’s thesis on readers’ perception of AI-generated news. He worked on the Veterans United SEO team, completing various SEO projects for a year, and last summer developed the Instagram presence of a small nonprofit newsroom, 100 Days in Appalachia. Outside of the news, Colin is a “video game guy” and enjoys spending time with friends and family.
Rachel Schlueter — Audience Service
Rachel Schlueter is a junior at Northwestern University studying journalism, economics and history. Originally from Vienna, Virginia, she covers city and campus issues for The Daily Northwestern, where she also serves as design editor, producing the weekly print edition. She is a graphic designer for Spoon Magazine, a nationwide food publication, and previously worked as a Capitol Hill political correspondent for Northwestern’s Washington, D.C., journalism program. Rachel has also interned at Northern Virginia Magazine. Outside the newsroom, Rachel enjoys running along Lake Michigan and discovering new coffee shops.
Sofia Schwarzwalder — Sports
Sofia Schwarzwalder is a junior at the University of Washington in Seattle, where she is double majoring in journalism and ethics. She was born in Seattle but lived in Hong Kong for 14 years before returning to the Emerald City for high school and college. Sofia was the news editor and managing editor at UW’s student newspaper, The Daily, where she also covered the baseball team. She just completed a legislative internship with The Seattle Times. Sofia joins The Star’s sports department as part of the Sports Journalism Institute. Outside of reporting, Sofia is involved in neurotech research with implantable devices at UW and enjoys spending time with her new dog, Kota.
Kennedy Sessions — Enterprise
Kennedy Sessions is a graduate student at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at City University of New York. She is also president of Craig Newmark’s National Association of Black Journalists chapter. Kennedy joins The Star as an Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting intern. Originally from Houston, Kennedy’s work has been featured in City Limits, Chron.com, Houstonia Magazine, The Texas Signal, and the Mott Haven Herald. She covers local and state politics, education and culture. She graduated from the University of St. Thomas in Houston with a bachelor’s degree in communication. In her free time, she enjoys going to concerts, trying new cuisines and listening to Beyoncé.
Isabella Waters — Breaking News
Isabella Waters is a junior at the University of Kansas studying history and journalism with a minor in political science. She is originally from Lansing, Michigan. Isabella is a senior reporter for The University Daily Kansan, where she covers university administration. She is also a freelance writer for the Lawrence Journal-World and is part of a research project at KU studying rural journalism. Outside of journalism, Isabella enjoys reading, playing the piano, spending time outside, and caring for Max, her pet turtle.
