The Olympian expands its news staff with new reporter, summer interns

If you are any kind of regular reader of The Olympian these days, you’ve likely noticed some new bylines on our pages. And you’re going to see another one starting this week.

Sara Gentzler, who spent the last year covering state government for the Washington State Wire and State of Reform, will be joining our reporting team on Monday. Like our other reporters, she will cover breaking news and monitor a number of smaller governments and agencies, but she will primarily be covering Thurston County government and its courts.

Gentzler holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. While there, she produced a multimedia website on the reintegration of Uganda’s child soldiers, an effort that won a Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence award for online, in-depth reporting.

We are excited to welcome her to The Olympian. Starting Monday, you can reach her at sgentzler@theolympian.com.

So what about those other bylines? Those are our summer interns.

Erin Snodgrass joined us in May, and hit the ground running. She is homegrown — she is a graduate of Olympia High School (where her dad is a teacher) and she is a former Capital Playhouse actor.

Snodgrass will be heading into her senior year pursuing a bachelor’s degree in mass communications at Loyola University in New Orleans and serving as editor of the campus’ multimedia news publication — but not until she spends the rest of her summer in Germany. Her last day at The Olympian will be June 28, but until then you can reach her at esnodgrass@theolympian.com. She will be missed.

Helen Smith is our other summer intern, and we are grateful she will be able to stay through August.

Readers, please keep an eye out for their bylines. And newsmakers, please return their calls and emails!

Thanks for reading.

This story was originally published June 22, 2019 at 12:28 PM.