New and returning summer interns join Appen staff

Nina Palmieri and Conner Evans have joined Appen Media Group as summer interns. 

Palmieri and Evans will assist the news team with coverage for Appen’s five newspapers and production of the daily podcast “Herald Daily Update.” 

Palmieri, a Forsyth County native and graduate of Lambert High School, is a rising junior at Georgia State University. In the fall, she plans to continue her major in journalism and marketing, while double majoring in film and media.

She has worked at her university’s career services center as a student assistant and at the campus radio station, Album 88, as a DJ. 

“I’m very excited to be here and to have a hand in reporting news for our area,” Palmieri said. “It’s amazing to see a community come together to get so much work done. And then to have it polished, printed and distributed all in the matter of a week or so is just amazing to me.”

Palmieri said she wanted to intern at her local newspaper to get a taste of a working and active journal while still being close to home. This summer, she hopes to gain experience and improve her writing, podcast and photography skills through working with Appen. 

“My dad and I have been reading Appen’s newspapers since I was a kid, and we are always pointing out new article and events to each other with each new issue,” she said. “So when I decided I wanted to work in the world of journalism and media, I knew Appen Media was exactly where I wanted to start.”

Evans, a Roswell native and graduate of Centennial High School, is a rising junior at the University of Richmond and is returning as an intern after beginning his reporting career with Appen last summer. He is double majoring in English and journalism.

At Richmond, he is the music director of the campus radio station, WDCE 90.1 FM. He is also on Richmond’s improv comedy team and club Quidditch team. He also works at a campus salad bar, and occasionally writes for the school newspaper and radio station website.

“I hope to build on everything I learned here last summer,” Evans said. “I want to write more, get out in the field more and stretch myself as much as possible to grow as a reporter.” 

Evans said he wanted to intern at his local newspaper to learn how reporting and journalism operates at the foundational level.

“I was lucky enough to get to do more than I expected to at Appen last year,” Evans said. “Appen Media seemed like the perfect place for me to try out real reporting and see if it was something that I would want to continue doing in the future. Now I’m getting even more trust from my editors and working on podcasts as well as print reporting.”

This summer, he hopes to gain as much experience as possible, becoming a better writer and reporter as well as building video and audio editing skills through producing shows on Appen’s podcast network.

He will also host his own podcast mini-series this summer about popular novels you may have read in high school or college called The Re-readables.