Meet Our Summer 2021 Newsroom Interns

We are excited to introduce The Wall Street Journal’s summer 2021 intern class. The competition was fierce, with more than 4,000 applications for 13 spots. They will be joined by seven interns from our 2020 class who deferred their assignment last summer amid the pandemic.

Starting in mid-June, this talented group will be our fourth class to work remotely. They will be working across all of our platforms, including audio, video and digital, with reporting team assignments to be finalized in the coming weeks.

Aiyana Ishmael (Reporting)

Aiyana is a senior journalism student at Florida A&M University. A Miami native, she also serves as the student representative for the Online News Association’s Board of Directors. Previously she served as the editor in chief of her campus magazine, Journey. Aiyana is a freelance writer with published clips in Teen Vogue, Essence and Poynter. In her spare time she hosts and produces her podcast, Black Fat Fashion. She also enjoys playing volleyball and basketball.

Ava Sasani (Audio)

Ava is a senior at Northeastern University. This year, her investigation into Customs and Border Protection was published on the front page of the Boston Globe. She has produced audio segments for On the Media and New Hampshire Public Radio. She often daydreams of quitting journalism to buy an alpaca farm in the Hudson Valley.

Aydali Campa (Reporting)

Aydali is a Roy W. Howard Fellow pursuing a master’s degree in investigative journalism at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. She was previously a Teach for America corps member in Oklahoma City teaching third and fourth grade. This spring, Aydali is interning at the Arizona Republic covering community issues and education. In her free time, she likes going on hikes or watching documentaries.

Brittney Forbes (Digital)

Brittney, a Dow Jones News Fund digital intern, is originally from the Philippines and grew up in Houma, La. She is a senior at Louisiana State University where she majored in English with a concentration in writing and culture and minored in linguistics. For four years, she worked at her college newspaper, the Reveille, as a news reporter, digital editor, managing editor and editor in chief. She worked as an intern/contributing writer for 225 Magazine, covering Baton Rouge businesses and eventually worked as a freelance writer in her senior year. She’s currently serving as a statehouse reporter with the LSU Manship School News Service, covering the Louisiana legislature. She’s also working as a digital content editor intern with the Advocate and NOLA.com. She is passionate about digital media, and she wants to broaden the way people read, receive and engage with their news.

Bryan Mena (Reporting)

Bryan is a senior political science student at the University of Texas at El Paso, where he served as the editor in chief of the student newspaper. He got his start at his community college’s newspaper before he transferred and has interned at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, El Paso Inc. and the San Francisco Chronicle. This spring he is covering Texas’ Congressional delegation and federal politics through a fellowship with the Texas Tribune. He loves trip-hop and lo-fi music, cats, skateboarding and hiking. He has lived along the U.S.-Mexico border in El Paso his whole life.

Hardika Singh (Reporting)

Hardika, a Dow Jones News Fund business reporting intern, is graduating from Ohio University with a degree in journalism and a minor in history. Growing up in India, she saw firsthand the role multimillion-dollar companies play in a rapidly developing economy. Interested in all areas of finance, she hopes DJNF will help her narrow her focus. In the past, she interned with Bloomberg News and reported on American and Canadian equities. She also worked as a small business reporter in Appalachia with Ohio University’s Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs. Outside of work and classes, Hardika likes to cook for her friends, hike and practice yoga.

Karina Shah (Reporting in London)

Karina is a 2020 graduate from Imperial College London, where she studied biomedical sciences. Previously, she has worked at Springer Nature as an editorial assistant and is currently interning on the news desk at New Scientist magazine in London, covering all things science. Karina is a member of the South Asian diaspora and is interested in investigating the experience of ethnic minority groups in the West. When not reporting, Karina can often be found listening to podcasts, cooking with her friends or fixated by a gripping docuseries.

Krystal Hur (Reporting)

Krystal, a Dow Jones News Fund business reporting intern, is a senior at the University of Michigan, where she is pursuing a dual degree in business administration and English. Krystal has previously interned for Automotive News and is a spring reporting intern at the Center for Responsive Politics, where she covers money-in-politics news. She also wrote and edited for the Michigan Daily, the University of Michigan’s student-run newspaper, and served as the 2020–21 president of the Society of Professional Journalists’ Ann Arbor chapter. In her free time, she enjoys watching home tour videos and going on walks.

Leonard Robinson (Reporting)

Leonard, a senior at the University of Baltimore, grew up between Maryland, Louisiana and Texas. He joins The Wall Street Journal after having interned with Consumers’ Research, Baltimore Business Journal, Carolina Journal and Reason. A native of the Washington, D.C., area, he served as president and editor in chief of the university newspaper, the Sting. His journalism interests lie in consumer issues, business and government regulation. In his spare time, he enjoys reading biographies, golfing, spending time outdoors and finding any excuse to travel through New England.

Madison Dong (Graphics)

Madison is a senior at Northwestern University studying journalism, computer science and design. Born and raised in Central Illinois, she is a spring 2021 data visuals fellow at the Texas Tribune and interned twice with the Washington Post as a designer and developer. She also co-directs the Asian American Journalists Association News Nerds affinity group and loves e-sports, journaling and homemade scallion pancakes.

Meghan Bobrowsky (Reporting)

Meghan Bobrowsky is a senior at Scripps College and currently an intern for the San Francisco Chronicle, covering California’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout. She previously interned at the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Sacramento Bee and most recently the Miami Herald, where she spent the summer of 2020 investigating COVID-19 outbreaks in nursing homes and federal Paycheck Protection Program fraud. She previously served as editor in chief of her school newspaper, the Student Life. Meghan hails from Davis, Calif., and in her free time can be found searching for the best boba in Northern California.

Omar Abdel-Baqui (Reporting)

Omar is from Detroit and is a senior at Wayne State University, where he studies journalism and Arabic. He previously worked at NBC News Investigations and was managing editor of Wayne State’s student newspaper, the South End. He currently covers police at the Detroit Free Press, where he has worked intermittently for about four years. He is interested in how policy affects people. In his free time, he likes to run, travel (not during a pandemic) and read in bustling coffee shops (definitely not during a pandemic).

Ryan Nguyen (Reporting)

Ryan will be the F. James Pensiero business news reporting intern. A graduating senior from the University of Oregon, Ryan led the student-run, independent newspaper, the Daily Emerald, and studied journalism and history. He’s previously interned for the Oregonian, Willamette Week and Eugene Weekly. When he’s not under deadlines, Ryan’s either playing Overwatch or drinking his weight in iced coffee.