Category Archives: Researcher stories

Learning how with Great Lakes Now

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By Donté Smith

Donté Smith

After spending most of my time in the Michigan State University journalism master’s program honing my photography skills, in the last year I focused on developing my writing and storytelling.

Joining the Great Lakes Now team allowed me to apply these skills in a new way while learning new techniques, like creating social media content, to stay prepared for the ever-changing world of journalism.

Experiences with Capital News Service and Great Lakes Echo gave me the confidence to pitch new story ideas and suggest fresh concepts for existing pitches.

My photography experience was appreciated, and I benefited from being around other photo- and video-focused people. They gave me new ideas for capturing images and suggested gear that would help me get the right shots for a story. While serving as both the reporter and the photographer for assignments was challenging, it helped me grow in both areas.

Joining the Great Lakes Now team was intimidating at first.

Being under the Detroit Public Television (PBS) umbrella, the organization was facing challenges related to federal funding reductions. I commend the Great Lakes Now team for providing me with engaging experiences while dealing with these challenges.

This experience taught me how much the world of journalism is constantly changing and that organizations like PBS will need to lean on their community-based models to face these challenges. Continue reading →

Interning at Michigan Public

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By Rachel Lewis

Rachel Lewis

Working at Michigan Public this summer as the environmental reporting intern was an eye-opening experience. I learned so much about environmental reporting and was introduced to the vast world of radio.

Growing up, my parents always had Michigan Public Radio playing in the car, but I never thought about how much work goes into a live 24/7 radio broadcast until I was sitting in the office, trying to figure out how to tell my 700-word story in under 30 seconds, or how to find the best 12-second soundbite from a 30-minute interview.

Michigan Public operates as a well-oiled machine, and every staff member I worked with made sure I fit in. Nobody hesitated to take time out of their busy days to answer my many questions. It didn’t take long for me to feel like a part of the team.

By my second day I had my first byline, and after a couple weeks of training I was expected to chase stories just like any seasoned reporter.

Reporting on the environment definitely comes with its ups and downs.

It was tough to report on highly scientific stories. Often these stories were on topics I had very little background knowledge of, but I tried to use this to my advantage. If it was something I was confused about, then it would definitely be something readers would be confused about too. This taught me to be extremely thorough with my research and interviews. Continue reading →

Diving headfirst at Bridge Michigan internship

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By Emilio Perez Ibarguen

Emilio Perez Ibarguen

It’s hard to wrap my mind around the fact that my 12 weeks covering the environment at Bridge Michigan are over, but I’d like to think that’s partly due to how busy I was chasing interesting stories all over the state.

From the very start, this internship allowed me to dive headfirst into many different policy debates, research findings and human interest stories. I became adept at learning new concepts on the fly, asking informed questions to experts and translating my reporting into a compelling narrative for readers.

One of the most challenging yet rewarding parts of my internship was going through edits with my editors at Bridge. Most stories I filed involved a consistent back-and-forth, tweaking lines for readability and forcing me to justify every detail I include in my story. While the process could be demanding at times, it pushed me to be more thoughtful in how every line in a story should help the public better understand a topic. Continue reading →

Remote sensing satellites are revealing global methane emissions

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Anna Barnes

By Anna Barnes

Methane gas is a cornerstone in the climate change conversation. Reducing emissions is a critical part of mitigation but there is one ever-standing issue of this elusive gas: it’s invisible.

At the Society of Environmental Journalists Conference 2025, one panel focused on locating and mapping methane pools to increase targeted action against the pollutant. The panel, “Revealing the Invisible: How Remote-Sensing Satellites are Transforming Methane Accountability and Climate Action,” included Deborah Gordon, the senior principal at the Rocky Mountain Institute’s (RMI) Climate Intelligence Program.

Gordon said identifying methane has always been a struggle for scientists.

“It’s invisible, it’s odorless,” she said. “It wants to escape from any system it’s in. So here I was early on in my career, given a bucket of soapy water and a paintbrush, and I was going around to see where the pressure would form with a bubble that would come.” Continue reading →