Meet the 2026 Kansas City Star summer intern class
The Kansas City Star is proud to announce our 2026 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 reporting, sports reporting, visual journalism, and audience engagement.
Our 10-person intern class was selected from more than 230 applicants. Three of our interns join us through specialized programs: McClatchy’s HBCU News Internship, the Ida B. Wells Society Investigative Internship and the Sports Journalism Institute Internship.
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.
Sophia Buonpane — Visual Journalism
Sophia Buonpane will be The Star’s visual journalism intern this summer. Originally from Long Beach Island, New Jersey, she is in her fourth year studying photojournalism with a minor in imaging systems at the Rochester Institute of Technology in Upstate New York.
“I’ve always been drawn to visual storytelling and the power images have to document real moments and tell meaningful stories,” Buonpane said.
In her free time, she is a bodybuilder and is fresh out of her second competitive season. She enjoys a good cup of coffee and said she’s looking for tips on the best cups in Kansas City.
Sophia can be reached at sophia.buonpane@kcstar.com.
Cuyler Dunn — Politics
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Cuyler Dunn will be joining The Star’s politics team as a summer intern. He is a recent University of Kansas graduate and lifelong Kansan. He studied journalism and political science.
Cuyler has worked for a handful of publications, including the Lawrence Times, Kansas Reflector and Kansas City PBS. He was a 2025 White House Correspondents’ Association Scholar.
Cuyler’s reporting has won awards from the Kansas Press Association, Society of Professional Journalists and National Scholastic Press Association. He is an alumnus of the CSIS Journalism Bootcamp and regularly presents at journalism conferences organized by KU and the Kansas Scholastic Press Association.
When not reporting, Cuyler is a member of the KU Chamber Choir and has competed in international competitions with the choir. He was a policy debater in high school and now occasionally coaches and judges tournaments.
Cuyler Dunn can be reached at cuyler.dunn@kcstar.com.
Freddrell Green — Investigations
Freddrell Green is a rising senior journalism major on the social justice track with a minor in entrepreneurship and innovation at Morehouse College. He is a native of Athens, Georgia. This summer, he will be interning with The Kansas City Star as an Ida B. Wells Society Investigative Fellow.
On campus, Freddrell serves as the managing editor of the Maroon Tiger. He is a Center for Black Entrepreneurship Scholar and the president of the Morehouse College Association of Black Journalists. Off campus, he hosted and produced the Education Matters radio show and wrote for the Atlanta Voice.
Freddrell’s ultimate passion lies at the intersection of mass media and entrepreneurship. He is the founder of Greenlit Media, an independent media company that creates human-interest content for African American audiences in Northeast Georgia. Its mantra is to “put the story where the goats can get it.”
Freddrell hopes that Greenlit Media can grow into the leading African American multimedia conglomerate to serve as both a network for original content and an agency for custom content services.
Freddrell can be reached at freddrell.green@kcstar.com.
Emily Harter — Breaking News
Emily Harter is joining The Star’s breaking news team as a summer intern. She recently graduated from the University of Kansas with a degree in multimedia journalism and minors in social justice and women, gender, sexuality studies.
Emily is dedicated to keeping her community informed in an accurate, timely manner, and holding institutions accountable. She is also passionate about community journalism and telling stories that matter to local residents. Through her work, she strives to create meaningful connections with readers and amplify voices across the communities she serves.
During her time at KU she worked for the University Daily Kansan as news editor and then editor-in-chief. She grew up in Olathe and loves exploring downtown Kansas City. She has also worked for her local paper, The Olathe Reporter, covering education and local government. In her free time, Emily enjoys taking her dog on walks and trying new restaurants in the area.
Emily can be reached at emily.harter@kcstar.com.
Sophie Lindberg — Service Journalism
Sophie Lindberg, a native of Kansas City, Kansas, joins The Star’s service journalism team as a summer intern. She is currently attending the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism.
Sophie’s love for journalism began in middle school when she was one of four-page designers for the yearbook. While attending Shawnee Mission East, Sophie was a writer, illustrator and designer for The Harbinger, the student newspaper.
At Mizzou, she fell in love with telling people’s stories and chose to focus her journalism degree on reporting and writing. Her work has appeared in the Columbia Missourian and Vox Magazine.
Sophie is thrilled to be back in her hometown to tell stories of and for KC’s friendly faces. Outside of writing, Sophie loves road trips to the outdoors, arts and crafts and fitness.
Sophie can be reached at sophie.lindberg@kcstar.com.
Latif Love — Sports
Latif Love is joining The Star as a sports intern as part of the Sports Journalism Institute. He is a sports communication and journalism major at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, and grew up in the South Suburbs of Chicago. He has served as the co-editor-in-chief of The Scout, Bradley’s student newspaper, interned at midmajorbasketball.com, and written for Draft Digest under the umbrella of Sports Illustrated.
Latif is an avid sports fan — especially basketball and football — who grew to love journalism in middle school after being inspired by the likes of Stuart Scott, Michael Wilbon, and Stephen A. Smith.
He also loves to spend time reading, watching TV shows and movies, and enjoys listening to music. A fun fact is that Latif has a twin brother.
Latif can be reached at latif.love@kcstar.com.
Christian Marshall — Sports
Christian Marshall is The Star’s HBCU Fellow from Ellicott City, Maryland. He will be working this summer with the sports department and our metro reporting teams to help cover the World Cup in Kansas City.
Christian is pursuing his master’s degree in journalism at Boston University. He previously studied journalism at Howard University, specializing in sports and community reporting.
He is a senior sports writer for Boston University’s student newspaper, The Daily Free Press, covering the university’s men’s and women’s basketball teams. He has also contributed to the Lexington Observer, covering community high school sports. He previously reported for Howard University’s student newspaper, The Hilltop, and the Howard University News Service.
Outside of reporting, Christian is an avid reader, gym-goer, and likes to watch TV and movies in his free time.
Christian can be reached at christian.marshall@kcstar.com.
Julianna Mejia — Local Government
Julianna Mejia is a local government intern for The Star. She is a rising senior pursuing a dual-degree in journalism and international studies at the University of Missouri. She grew up in the Chicago suburbs and eventually moved to St. Louis for high school.
In the last year, she has worked for KBIA 91.3 FM and Missouri Business Alert as a general assignment reporter and production assistant, respectively. Julianna spent the fall semester in Brussels, Belgium, as a social media intern for Euronews, where she learned to create short-form political content for a large European community.
Previously, she was an editor for Mizzou’s student publication, The Maneater, where she oversaw the News staff and also led the Data and Investigation staff through two in-depth investigations. She is a journalism ambassador for the Missouri School of Journalism.
Julianna is passionate about international affairs and hopes to increase American interest in global politics. In her free time, she likes reading, exercising, cooking, playing GeoGuessr and traveling. Her next adventure will take her to her parents’ native country, Colombia, to visit family and better connect with her culture.
Julianna can be reached at julianna.mejia@kcstar.com.
Alexa Newsom — Breaking News
Alexa (Lexi) Newsom will intern on The Star’s breaking news team. She is a rising junior at Northwestern University studying journalism and environmental policy.
Lexi grew up in Overland Park and is excited to cover breaking news in the greater Kansas City area. She previously served as a managing editor and the campus editor for The Daily Northwestern, as well as an environment reporter for Northwestern’s Washington, D.C., journalism program.
Outside of the newsroom, she likes exploring new coffee shops, watching movies and spending time with her dog, Patrick.
Lexi can be reached at alexa.newson@kcstar.com.
Zuri Primos — Audience Engagement
Zuri Primos’ name may be familiar to Star readers. She was an intern with us last summer on the breaking news team. This summer, Zuri will work across teams in the newsroom to focus on audience engagement. She is a Kansas City native.
Zuri is a senior mass communication major at Dillard University in New Orleans. She is minoring in visual arts, urban studies and public policy. She is the editor-in-chief for Dillard’s student newspaper, The Courtbouillon, and is president of the university’s chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists. She is passionate about writing, community work and the arts.
Zuri can be reached at zuri.primos@kcstar.com.
