As sticky hot days give way to chilly nights and misty mornings, our new interns are steeping in the topics and issues that animate Pittsburgh — a city as dynamic as the four seasons that sweep through it each year. But their journeys each began in America’s hot, dry Southwest; and some hope their craft will take them all around the world.
Here’s a bit about the folks who will enforce accuracy, assemble stories and sharpen their chops in the field through these final months of 2024. See what they each have to say about the distinctions that struck them upon arriving in Pittsburgh from their homes in the South and West.
Amber Frantz
PublicSource role: editorial intern
Hometown: San Antonio, Texas
College: University of Pittsburgh
Major: Neuroscience
Published in: The Pitt News, The Pitt Pulse, Pitt Med Magazine
Notable Southwestern US/PA distinction? “One key distinction between Southwestern Pennsylvania and the Southwestern U.S. is the food. Despite the diverse cuisines Pittsburgh offers, I miss Texas BBQ and authentic Tex-Mex. The change in climate is also a huge difference — I do not miss the heat.”
Amber arrived in Pittsburgh three years ago to study neuroscience with ambitions of grad school and ultimately an academic career. But by last summer she sensed that path would leave her unfulfilled.
“I thought I was going to be a hardcore scientist,” she said. “But I realized last summer, when I was working full-time in a research lab, I did not want to spend the rest of my life doing this.”
Instead she returned to a passion for creative writing, nurtured since childhood, and found she could combine this with her scientific training by working as a journalist.
“I stumbled on science journalism and realized I could have the best of both worlds.”
When school resumed, she signed up to write for The Pitt News and Pulse Magazine. She then interned at the Pitt Med Magazine, where a first-person essay, published in PublicSource and assigned as a required reading, spurred her application for our fall internship. Expect her byline to show up next to county health board updates and deeper dives into health disparities as she applies her scientific training to local journalism.
Spencer Levering
PublicSource role: editorial intern
Hometown: Las Vegas, Nevada
College: University of Pittsburgh
Major: Psychology and communications
Published in: The Pitt News
Notable Southwestern US/PA distinction? “I’m gonna have to agree with Amber and say that the food differences are one of the big distinctions I make between the two regions. I love Pittsburgh’s food scene, but it’s hard to beat the variety of incredible restaurants that Las Vegas has to offer.”
Like Amber, Spencer landed in Pittsburgh three years ago without any notion of a career in the news business. In fact, he got into journalism to work through what he perceived as a weakness with words compared to his affinity for numbers.
But after a few weeks with The Pitt News, journalism shifted from a discipline to a passion. Now he can’t imagine doing anything else.
“I love the whole process from learning the material, to interviewing, to writing a piece,” he said. “I want to be able to do that in the future.”
Spencer was a green TPN reporter with just a couple of bylines to his name when, last spring, his editor assigned him to cover a controversial campus appearance by a speaker who publicly opposes transgender rights.
The experience was, he reflects, “really profound,” though from his position now as assistant news editor he would think twice about sending his rookie self to cover such a sensitive issue.
Spencer plans to apply his quick news instincts to Grant Street and keep you up to speed on local government happenings.
Anastasia Busby
PublicSource role: photography intern
Hometown: Napa, California
College: University of Missouri (graduate)
Major: Photojournalism and documentary, sociology minor
Published in: Columbia Missourian
Notable Southwestern US/PA distinction: “One key distinction between Southwestern Pennsylvania and the Southwestern U.S. is the landscape. From what I’ve seen so far, it seems so lush and hilly here, whereas in California there are beaches and deserts.”
It all began for Anastasia when she got her hands on a point-and-shoot camera in the fourth grade. She was gripped by the forms of nature, and remembers walking up and down the street snapping at the birds and flowers she saw along the way.
A few years on, she came across her first National Geographic magazine, pored over the photographs and thought, “I know this is what I’m going to do.”
She enrolled at the University of Missouri’s renowned School of Journalism, where she graduated this spring before darting to Europe for a summer of travel and exploration.
Staffing for Nat Geo remains in play, but she’s open to all work that will lead her to interesting people and places.
“Right now I love going out into the field and meeting people and doing all the work but I also love being the one that coordinates things,” she said, nodding to her experience as a photo editor.
For the next 12 weeks she’ll be training her lens on the people and places of Pittsburgh.
“I’m excited to explore the city and get to know the communities here.”
Evans Toviave
PublicSource role: audience growth intern
Hometown: Cartersville, Georgia
College: Carnegie Mellon University
Major: International relations and political science
Related experience: The Tartan writer, CMU Model United Nations communications director
Notable hometown/Pittsburgh distinction: “Georgia is a lot hotter. The humidity is where you notice the difference. My skin was dry last winter here and I had to get a humidifier in my room.”
After completing his summer internship here in July, Evans is back creating reels, crafting social media copy and forging connections with our audience around the region.
Involvement with high school clubs gave Evans a taste for civic engagement that continues to drive his academic and career aspirations. Early in his college career, he realized he could independently develop his skills in the communication space and switched disciplines from media studies to political science and international relations. A year later, he transferred to CMU, from where he has been able to analyze global issues through a technical lens.
“I definitely want to find something at the intersection of political science, technology and media,” he said. “And I do want to leave the U.S. at some point — wherever the adventure takes me, I will go.”
Evans will step back into a similar role, but wants to dive deeper into analytics this time around.
“I want to continue making reels and continue telling these stories that are so important to the Pittsburgh community.”
Jamie Wiggan is deputy editor at PublicSource. He can be reached at jamie@publicsource.org.
