Meet June Leffler, KyCIR's Summer Fellow

June Leffler, who graduated this month from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, is KyCIR’s summer fellow.

She will report, edit and produce stories of all sorts in the next few months.

Leffler, 27, was born and raised in Louisville. She graduated from Seneca High School and earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Louisville.

She previously interned at the Studs Terkel Radio Archive, which houses over 5,000 of Terkel's interviews with notable and ordinary figures from the past.

She is a two-time recipient of the Kentucky Foundation for Women's Artist Enrichment Grant for her youth arts publication Goodwill Zine. She also taught English in a public high school in South Korea.

Leffler is passionate about audio production, investigative journalism and do-it-yourself zines.

Here’s June in her own words:
My first venture in investigative journalism was at Northwestern University, where worked alongside Chicago Tribune reporter David Kidwell. I parsed through hundreds of pages of legal documents looking for a single number or signature that would imply wrongdoing. This kind of reporting can be tedious and grueling. Often you are in the dark searching for the answers, but that makes the breakthroughs even more rewarding. Let me know what stories need uncovering.
You can reach June at jleffler@kycir.org or leave a note in the comments.

The newsroom’s previous summer fellow, William Wright, is currently in the woodssomewhere near Virginia. He embarked on a monthslong hike of the Appalachian Trial before starting his journalism career.

Eleanor Hasken, our first fellow, is working on a doctorate degree in folklore studies at Indiana University.