POLITICO announces 2023 Class of POLITICO Fellows

Announcement from Editorial Director Diversity & Culture John Yearwood, Editor-in-Chief Matt Kaminski, Executive Editor Platforms and Operations Joe Schatz, Executive Editor Dafna Linzer, Senior Managing Editor Sudeep Reddy, Executive Editor Growth Luiza Savage and Senior Editor Standards & Ethics Anita Kumar:

We are thrilled to announce that the 2023-2024 class of Politico Fellows has been selected. Each fellow brings a unique set of skills and creativity to POLITICO. One has distinguished herself as a local political reporter in Boston, another has made a presentation to Pope Francis, another is the top editor at his school newspaper and a familiar sight around the POLITICO newsroom, and another was critical to the success of a best-selling book.

The fellows will begin arriving in the newsroom later this month and we couldn’t be happier to have them with us. More than 100 candidates applied for four slots and were selected after a rigorous judging process, which included a series of interviews with our top editors.

The program, launched in 2020, is designed to empower journalists seeking to advance their careers in political and policy journalism. Graduates now hold important reporting roles at POLITICO, both on the politics and policy teams.

The industry-leading program selects journalists at the beginning of their careers to spend a year with POLITICO, rotating through various teams and sharpening their skills by learning from some of the best in the business. Fellows who successfully complete the program are offered a full-time position, a rarity among similar fellowships.

As the program begins its third year, we intend to focus even more attention on the fellows to broaden and deepen their experience. And as our U.S. and Europe newsrooms combine under the One POLITICO banner, we intend to increase interaction between the fellows and colleagues in Europe, including a group visit to Brussels to cover a developing story or event.

Since the program started, fellows have had a major impact on the work we do. Their stories have been critical in our coverage of the war in Ukraine, the Covid pandemic, presidential and mid-term elections and so much more. We’re eager to see how the cohort we’ll begin to welcome this month will leave their mark on POLITICO.

We’re currently placing last year’s fellows in full-time positions, a process that will continue through the summer. We encourage you to get to know all our fellows, both current and the newly selected class. One fellow will arrive in January and the remaining three in June. After placement with the breaking news team for a month, the fellows will begin three-month rotations through various teams. Please let John know if you would like a fellow to work with your team.

The 2023-2024 POLITICO Fellows are:

Mia McCarthy, metro correspondent, Boston Globe. Mia graduated last year from Boston University with a B.S. in Journalism and B.A. in International Relations with concentrations in foreign policy and national security. She has interned for Bloomberg and The Patriot Ledger. Mia wrote in her application: “The first time one of my stories appeared in POLITICO’s Massachusetts Playbook was almost two years ago while covering the statehouse. I was ecstatic to have my work acknowledged from a premier politics news organization.” She starts Jan. 31.

Eric Bazail-Eimil, who made the presentation to the pope, is a politics reporting intern for The Wall Street Journal. He graduates in May from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service. A former intern at NBC’s Meet the Press and Reason magazine, he also served as an editorial board member and opinion columnist at The Hoya. He starts June 20.

Lawrence Ukenye, who graduates from Temple with a journalism degree in May, has interned at POLITICO since June. He formerly interned at the Daily Beast and Solitary Watch. He serves as editor-in-chief of the Temple News, the student-run newspaper. At POLITICO, Lawrence is assigned to the National Security team, where he co-hosts the National Security Daily newsletter. He starts June 20.

Christine Mui, who has interned at the Boston Globe, The Hill and Fortune, graduates in May from Harvard with a B.A. in Government and Tech Science. She served as an editor and reporter with Sampan Newspaper in Boston, New England’s only bilingual Chinese and English newspaper. She also served as associate managing editor for the Harvard Political Review and as a reporter for the Crimson. She was the lead researcher for the best-seller, This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America’s Future by Alex Burns and Jonathan Martin. She starts June 27.