My Davidson | A Student Blog My Summer as a Climate Reporting Intern at WFAE
September 29, 2025
About the Author
Stella Mackler ‘26 is an Environmental Studies major from Atlanta, GA. Outside of the classroom, she is involved with the Sustainability Office and is the editor of the Davidsonian newspaper at Davidson College.
June Springs grew up in West Davidson and has lived there her entire life.
She's 84, and this summer she participated in a program to get free, energy efficient upgrades to her family home. Gloria Romano lives in a senior community in Mooresville. She got a free fan from the county during the summer’s first heat wave. Harper Ellis is a street outreach worker who helps keep Charlotte’s unhoused community safe.
These women are a snapshot of the many community members, workers and leaders I had the opportunity to interview and learn from this summer as an environmental reporting intern at WFAE, Charlotte’s NPR news source.
Featured Stories
No-cost repairs help residents hold on to homes and lower their utility bills
by Stella Mackler
Many low-income homeowners live in older houses that are less energy efficient and more vulnerable to storm damage. When money’s already tight, costly repairs and high energy bills can threaten their health — and even whether they can stay in their homes.
Stella Mackler / WFAE
Incarcerated firefighters protect North Carolina. The benefits don't always flow both ways
by Stella Mackler
Building, rehabilitating, instructing, developing, growing, employing. Those are the promises made by the BRIDGE program, which trains incarcerated young men to fight fires, among other skills. But does it hold true to those promises?
North Carolina Forest Service / Handout
Working at WFAE was an education in arts, community building, and of course, public radio. I had the unique opportunity to work one on one with their climate reporter and learned to master all the buttons, cords and seemingly random sounds that came from my equipment. From there, WFAE essentially dumped me head first into the great big world (the city of Charlotte). I reported from the government center, the mountains of western North Carolina and an encampment of unhoused people living beside I-77. Mic and chunky headphones in hand, I chased stories all around the region, learning more about North Carolinians from all walks of life with every interview.
Internally, working inside of a newsroom was also a very enlightening experience. I’ve been involved with the Davidsonian since my freshman year but this was my first professional journalism experience. Participating in daily pitch meetings, sitting through edits and even just listening to chatter within the newsroom gave me a significantly deeper understanding of journalism and at the same time, it showed me how much room I have to grow. An unexpected educational experience: While I was in that newsroom, WFAE confronted the rescission of federal funding for the corporation for public broadcasting. It was a window into the challenge of sustaining local journalism and the resilience of those determined to do the work.
Sustainability Scholars made my experience possible. It is a program run by the Sustainability Office, connecting a cohort of 10 students to environmentally-minded internships. As I begin my senior year at Davidson and look forward to a career in reporting, I’ll carry with me all that I learned this summer.
