The College Fix

The College Fix will send six aspiring journalists to Washington, D.C. this summer to intern at some of the most well-respected and well-read news outlets in the nation.

The young reporters represent the organization’s largest class of D.C. journalism fellows to date, students who will receive paid stipends to work for 10 weeks among the fields’ most talented veterans, gaining valuable experience and a lifetime of memories.

All six of the students are regular contributors to The College Fix, and each one has proven themselves to be driven and ambitious budding reporters, as much of their work on the Fix over the last school year has been picked up by a variety of national news outlets, including the Drudge Report, Fox News, and the Daily Caller, to name a few.

One of the goals of The College Fix and its parent organization, the nonprofit Student Free Press Association, is to identify such students, and give them an opportunity to not only report on the latest campus news, but also advance their journalism careers.

With that, we proudly introduce to you The College Fix’s 2014 summer fellowship recipients:

Aaron Bandler, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo; Internship location: The Daily Caller

Michael Cipriano, American University; Internship location: Real Clear Politics

Alexandra DeSanctis, University of Notre Dame; Internship location: USA Today

Vivian Hughbanks, Hillsdale College; Internship location: The Hill

Blake Seitz, University of Georgia; Internship location: Washington Examiner

Ben Smith, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Internship location: American Spectator

Fellowship biographies:

Ben Smith is set to graduate in May 2014 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he double majored in political science and U.S. History. In 2012, Ben began to write for the Carolina Review after he heard and researched the coal divestment movement that was sweeping campus. After that news coverage, Ben continued to cover campus events, from student government, to political rallies, to the never-ending sources of scandals that were occurring on campus, reporting that was picked up by the Huffington Post. Through the College Fix, Ben’s stories have also appeared on National Review, Campus Caller, and even received coverage on Fox News, in particular a series of reports on how the UNC College Republicans’ budget was slashed last fall. Ben will work at the American Spectator this summer.

Michael Cipriano is a junior at American University, where he studies journalism. He was an editorial intern for FoxNews.com in New York City during the summer of 2013. He researched, reported and wrote original stories and helped with website production. He then became a contributing writer for The College Fix, where he reported and wrote original stories and opinion pieces. Michael also became the politics editor for The American Word, one of American’s student-run magazines. He currently interns for Government Computer News, a business-to-business magazine that delivers technological assessments and recommendations to public sector IT managers. For the upcoming summer, Michael will be paired with Real Clear Politics.

Blake Seitz is the 2014 summer fellow at The Washington Examiner. Blake is a senior at the University of Georgia pursuing a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s degree in public administration. He will graduate with both degrees in the fall semester of 2014. Blake is editor-in-chief and co-founder of The Arch Conservative, a quarterly magazine on his college campus. Prior to that, Blake was opinions editor of The Red & Black, the campus newspaper. He is a contributor to The College Fix. His work has also appeared on National Review Online and Breitbart, and has been picked up by the Drudge Report and The Daily Caller.

Alexandra DeSanctis is a rising junior at the University of Notre Dame, where she studies political science and constitutional studies. During high school, she worked as an intern for the Laura Ingraham Radio Show. After graduating high school, she returned to the Laura Ingraham show as an associate producer. Last summer, she interned for the communications department of the Financial Services Roundtable. Alexandra has served as the associate politics & economics editor for Notre Dame’s conservative Irish Rover newspaper, and next year will work as the paper’s managing editor. She will work this summer at USA Today.

Vivian Hughbanks is a student of politics and journalism at Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan. Originally from the Chattanooga, Tennessee area, she was homeschooled through high school. Vivian decided to pursue a career in journalism during her internship at the Chattanooga Times Free Press in the summer of 2013. Now a student in the Dow Journalism Program, Vivian is a staff reporter for Hillsdale’s Collegian. She also reports on the activities of A Few Good Men, a student-run non-profit, for the Hillsdale Daily News. In addition to her work with journalism, Vivian is a member of Hillsdale’s mock trial team, Sigma Alpha Iota women’s music honorary, and a member of Hillsdale Enactus’ International Outreach Initiative. Her College Fix work has been picked up by the Drudge Report.

Aaron Bandler has sought a career in journalism ever since middle school, when he began to passionately follow the San Francisco Giants and 49ers, among other teams. He started out as a sports reporter, but soon became the conservative columnist for his high school newspaper, The Californian. As the conservative columnist, Aaron won the Dean S. Lesher Regional Award for best opinion column on the topic of the Obama administration’s attempt to prosecute the 9/11 terrorists in civilian court. Aaron is currently a junior studying journalism at Cal Poly, where he freelances for the Mustang News TV. He also spent the summer of 2013 interning at the Armstrong Williams Show. As a contributor to The College Fix, Aaron made national headlines when he exposed how one of his professors called terrorists freedom fighters. He is set to intern at The Daily Caller.

Learn more about The College Fix/Student Free Press Association alumni.

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