Say hello to The News Tribune’s summer news intern, journalist Jabez Choi
Hey Tacoma! My name is Jabez Choi, and I will be one of the intern reporters this summer at The News Tribune. I grew up here, just a few streets away from Sunnyside Beach Park, and remember reading The News Tribune in my middle school history class. It’s a full circle moment for me to be back here as a reporter.
I just graduated from Yale University with a degree in English literature, where I learned about storytelling in all of its various forms. Most of my time was spent editing at a long form journalism magazine about New Haven and Yale called The New Journal. One of my first articles was a piece about the city’s gay bar scene. I dug into university archives, interviewed queer community figureheads and elders, and sat at the counter with a pen and pad while Whitney Houston played overhead.
After this experience, I realized that local journalism has the ability to stitch together communities in cities that otherwise would feel quite disconnected. In 2024, I received the Yale Journalism Fellowship and interned for half a year at The New Haven Independent, a hyper-local nonprofit paper.
Last summer, I took a brief break from journalism to research Asian-American protest poetry. Much of my research centered on the media coverage of these poets — newspaper clippings, documentaries, interview audio tapes. The fingerprints of journalists covered all of these materials and their hard work wasn’t lost on me.
I’m beyond humbled to have the opportunity to explore my home through the lens of local journalism. From the diverse communities I grew up with on South Tacoma Way to the beautiful scenes in Ruston, I can’t wait to reconnect with the city. If you have a tip for a story, shoot me an email at jabez.choi@thenewstribune.com. Or if you are also a fan of “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” Pokémon, and/or Banana Yoshimoto, we can talk about that too.
