A perfect 10: Meet The Charlotte Observer’s 2025 summer intern class
We are proud to announce The Charlotte Observer’s summer 2025 interns, and with them we have a perfect 10.
Selected from a pool of nearly 250 candidates, these journalists will work across our newsroom with the metro, business, sports, visuals, lifestyles, opinion and audience teams. They’ll work alongside our staff covering everything from breaking news to local government, industry, enterprise and accountability journalism.
Our interns bring experience from college, from working at other news outlets — regional, national and international — and have stood out as leaders at their respective school publications.
They will be full-fledged staff reporters, assigned to cover news in Charlotte and the surrounding region, including right over the South Carolina border in York and Lancaster counties. The stories and visual content they produce will appear on The Observer’s home pages and The (Rock Hill) Herald, in our newsletters, The Edition and in print.
As interns, the class will be paired with mentors and receive a full suite of training, including everything from breaking news, grammar, how to write without bias, SEO and metrics, narrative writing, AI fundamentals, how to search public records, and how to use data in reporting, to name a few.
Most interns will be starting on June 9. Meet this year’s class:
▪ Lauren-Kennedy Brown is an honors freshman mass communications & journalism major at North Carolina A&T State University. She contributes to the Associated Press Sports Editors mentorship program and her campus publication The Register, covering sports events and building a strong portfolio. As one of two freshmen content creators for the Council of Presidents, she helps manage campus-wide events and social media. Lauren-Kennedy is also sophomore class vice-president, active with NABJ, and Minorities in Sports. Lauren joins the newsroom as part of McClatchy’s HBCU Development Program that provides students with a broad experience in media and guarantees them a summer job throughout college and upon graduation.
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▪ Sofia DiStefano is a rising senior at UNC Charlotte majoring in communications with a concentration in media and technology, and a minor in journalism. She has served as the news editor for the student publication, The Niner Times, since March. Recently Sofia received the Story of the Year award for a co-written story about an immigrant family march in uptown Charlotte. She has been named the Niner Times 2024-2025 Writer of the Year — an award she also won the previous school year. She also won the Student Niner Media 2024 Emerging Leader Award. Sofia is originally from Sparta, New Jersey and will cover news throughout York County, primarily for the Observer’s sister paper, The (Rock Hill) Herald.
▪ Lila Hempel-Edgers is a rising senior at Northeastern University in Boston, where she is studying journalism, criminal justice and psychology. She previously covered breaking news during a six-month internship at The Boston Globe and now contributes to The New York Times as a stringer. Last summer, she reported from Lima, Peru, on disparities in LGBTQ+ healthcare access. Originally from Concord, Massachusetts, Lila is a regular contributor to several student publications and hosts a weekly radio show on campus. She will join the Observer’s metro and breaking news desk this summer.
▪ Damenica Ellis is a junior at Howard University majoring in media, journalism and film, with a concentration in journalism and a minor in English. She is originally from Saint Paul, Minnesota, and is a campus section reporter for The Hilltop, Howard’s student-run newspaper. Previously she interned with Twin Cities PBS. Damenica will be a metro intern this summer.
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▪ Emma Moon recently graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a bachelor’s degree in media and journalism, as well as English and comparative literature. While at UNC, Emma served as the assistant sports editor and summer sports editor for The Daily Tar Heel, the university’s independent student newspaper. In these roles, she primarily covered UNC football, men’s basketball and baseball. Emma will join the sports desk this summer.
▪ Maia Nehme is a rising junior at Yale University majoring in history with certificates in Spanish, Italian and journalism. She previously reported on public safety and immigration in New Haven for the Yale Daily News and this fall will be the city desk editor. She’s also an associate editor for The New Journal, Yale’s premier student magazine. Maia has interned at LNP | LancasterOnline in Lancaster, Penn., and at California Magazine, the UC Berkeley alumni magazine, in Berkeley, Calif. She will write for the Observer’s metro desk this summer.
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▪ Alex Nettles is a rising senior at Elon University. He writes for the Pendulum, Elon University’s newspaper, and enjoys novel topics and anecdotes from strangers. Alex searches for diverse topics in North Carolina, from isolated communities after Hurricane Helene to the personal lives of a group of born-again bikers. He looks forward to diving into the issues affecting Charlotte and learning from his colleagues. Alex joins The Charlotte Observer as an Opinion intern.
▪ Abby Pender is a recent graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she earned a degree in journalism and media with minors in Data Science and Hispanic Studies. While at Chapel Hill, she served in multiple roles, including University Editor at The Daily Tar Heel, the student-run newspaper. She also has worked for The Intercept and The Buenos Aires Herald. With a background in bilingual journalism, Abby aspires to be a foreign correspondent, with a focus on immigration and corruption. Abby will work on the metro desk this summer.
▪ Sydney Sasser has won this year’s MS Van Hecke Award, which was named for a longtime Charlotte Observer business editor and funds a business news intern at the Observer. Sydney is a recent graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a degree in media and journalism, a minor in English and a certificate in business journalism. She has reported for The Durham Voice, The Intercept and Neuse News. Sydney joins the Observer’s business team this summer.
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▪ Lila Turner is a recent graduate of The University of Michigan, where she studied environmental studies and worked as a photographer for the student newspaper, The Michigan Daily. She will be working with the visuals team.
Keep an eye out for these interns’ bylines this summer. Have story ideas for them? Send to news@charlotteobserver.com.
This story was originally published May 6, 2025 at 6:00 AM.
