The Indigenous Journalists Association (IJA), in partnership with The Scripps Howard Fund, the Institute for Nonprofit News and ICT, has selected Kadin Mills, Keweenaw Bay Indian Community of Lake Superior Ojibwe, as the recipient of the 2024 political reporting internship announced earlier this year.

Kadin Mills

Kadin Mills is a 2024 graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. He is a first-generation descendant of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community of Lake Superior Ojibwe. He is also of German and Irish descent. 

At Northwestern, Mills worked closely with Dr. Patty Loew as a research assistant on the 2022 Tribal Youth Media Workshop, taking part in community building efforts in Indigenous communities across the country. He also served as both Opinion editor and In Focus editor for The Daily Northwestern. Mills previously contributed to WBEZ’s Curious City, reporting on local Indigenous history in Chicago.

He currently reports for ICT at the organization’s Washington, D.C. bureau.

The Scripps Howard Fund created the internship program in 2023, aimed at giving students high-quality, hands-on experience covering stories in rural communities. The Fund is partnering with the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN), which supports more than 425 news organizations, including the 77-member Rural News Network covering rural America. 

ICT was selected as a host nonprofit newsroom for the 2024 year. 

The intern will help cover the presidential election for the ICT digital team from the Washington bureau, including Indigenous politics, policy and issues happening in and around the nation’s capital. In addition to contributing to the digital platform, the intern will have the opportunity to participate in the 2024 Native election night national broadcast in November (for the fourth consecutive time) and learn broadcasting skills while on the job.

The student will be coached by ICT’s political correspondent, previous political reporters, and the ICT executive editor on covering national and tribal politics, and have the opportunity to build relationships with federal agencies and national tribal organizations.   

Left to right: Pauly Denetclaw, ICT Political Correspondent; Kadin Mills, IJA-ICT-Scripps Political Reporting Intern; Jourdan Bennett-Begate, ICT Executive Editor