Hello! My name is Rachel Sandstrom, and I am excited to be on board with The Covington News as an intern reporter. I will be covering the Board of Education and a new section of the paper titled “Summer Fun” for the next eight weeks. 

I will be starting my senior year at the University of Georgia as a journalism student this fall. My passion for journalism started in high school when I wrote for my school paper. That is when I realized my passion for listening to people’s stories. I believe it is a privilege when people share their lives with others, and I am honored to be the person privy to such information. My passion only grew through my time at the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. At Grady, I not only learned the fundamentals of reporting but also how to tell stories that matter. I plan to sharpen these skills over the course of my internship at Covington. 

Last semester, I had the incredible opportunity to work as a Georgia State Legislature reporter for Grady’s student-run broadcast newsroom, Grady Newsource. In this class, I covered a myriad of Georgia bills pertaining to school safety, transgender care and DEI. Throughout the semester, my classmates and I circulated through different newsroom roles such as TV reporters, digital reporters and TV producers. Hopping between roles gave me a glimpse into what it takes to run a newsroom in the real world. I pitched my own story ideas, set up my own interviews, and edited my videos for TV, every Monday and Wednesday on a 5 p.m. deadline. This level of responsibility in such a fast-paced environment allowed me to grow exponentially as a journalist in a short period of time. I am beyond grateful to Grady and my professor, Dodie Cantrell-Bickley, for this experience. 

In addition to Grady Newsource, I spent my junior year writing three articles for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution under the direction of Professor Lori Johnston. Johnston is the director of the Cox Institute’s Journalism Writing Lab, where she leads a project called Covering Poverty. Within Covering Poverty, Johnston works with a few students every year to write about poverty and people-related matters for a news outlet in Georgia. This past year, I wrote about two different UGA students who run nonprofits centered around helping students and families in need. This experience taught me the importance of digging deeper into a story than just meets the eye. I plan to carry this skill with me throughout my journalism career. 

I have two goals for this summer. First, I would like to get better at turning news stories quicker without sacrificing quality or accuracy. News happens fast, and it’s my job to stay ahead of it. Secondly, I want to get to know the people who make up Covington and Newton County beyond the Vampire Diaries characters. I have been confined to Athens, Ga. while attending UGA for the past few years, and I am excited to get beyond my town and learn about this one. 

Rachel Sandstrom is an intern reporter with The Covington News for the summer of 2025 and a student at The University of Georgia. She can be reached at rsandstrom@covnews.com.