Meet Bridge Michigan’s summer 2024 interns

• Three college journalists will join Bridge Michigan for the summer
• Sneha Dhandapani, Gabby Nelson and Daniel Schoenherr will report stories and assist Bridge’s full-time reporters
• This is the sixth year Bridge has sponsored internships

Bridge Michigan welcomes three new interns this summer from the state’s public universities.

This is the sixth year Bridge has offered summer internships, with the mission of helping grow the next generation of great Michigan journalists. Past interns have gone on to work for the New York Times, USA Today, MLive, the Petoskey News-Review and WKAR, as well as Harvard Law School and a Fulbright scholarship. Former intern Asha Lewis is now Bridge’s full-time digital marketing associate.

Here is the Class of 2024:

Gabby Nelson, from west Michigan’s Byron Center, is graduating this summer from Michigan State University with a degree in journalism. While in East Lansing, she worked at Impact89FM, the student radio station.

Nelson’s internship is sponsored by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and she will write stories about the environment.

“I’ve never been a big talker, but I am a great listener. And I love a good story,” Nelson said. “That love of listening to stories and writing brought me to journalism.”

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A devoted runner and reader, Nelson will work closely with Kelly House, the environmental reporter at Bridge. Nelson came aboard on May 13 and will work athrough Aug. 2.

Nelson said she’s excited to work at the state’s largest nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. “I’ll write more stories this summer than I have in my whole four years as a journalism student,” Nelson said. “My writing will improve significantly, and I’m excited to learn from the amazing, award-winning Bridge staff.”

Sneha Dhandapani grew up in suburban Chicago and will be a junior this fall at the University of Michigan majoring in cognitive science and creative writing. In the past school year, she served as the administration news editor and managing editor for podcasts at U-M’s student newspaper, The Michigan Daily.

“I am constantly inspired by the impact journalism has, whether it is in everyday conversation, changes made in policy or through how it connects people,” Dhandapani said. “I especially love the adrenaline rush of field reporting.”

Dhandapani will work as a general assignment reporter at Bridge from May 28 to July 19.

“An internship with Bridge was everything I was looking for: mentorship, exposure to every side of a newsroom and the opportunity to grow,” she said. “I’m most excited to understand the operations of a professional newsroom. I admire how Bridge embodies ethical and transparent journalism, a set of values I’d like to root myself in as I start my own career.”

Daniel Schoenherr is a Canton native who will be a senior at Michigan State University in the fall. He has written for the Great Lakes Echo environmental publication at MSU and at the college newspaper the State News.

“Good journalism can give the public direction when they need it most,” Schoenherr said. “News gives people the power to take action in helping themselves and others.”

The avid outdoorsman will work as a general assignment reporter at Bridge from July 8 through Aug. 23.

“Bridge is my favorite Michigan publication, and I couldn't be more excited to work with the reporters whose work I've been reading for years,” he said. “I want to learn how I can make my stories as meaningful as possible through refining my interview skills and learning how to contextualize and simplify important points.”