The New Pine Plains Herald has welcomed two summer interns. Ava Battinelli, who is entering her senior year at Marist University, and Shuchi Shah, a graduate student at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY, will contribute local reporting across the paper’s five-town service area.
“Having these two women join the Herald team this summer will add depth to our coverage,” said Dick Hermans, who co-founded the publication nearly three years ago and serves as vice president on its board of directors. “All of us who have been on the Herald’s ride since 2022 are thrilled by this growth in the organization.”
Battinelli, a native of Rivervale, N.J., is studying communications with a concentration in journalism and a minor in photography. She is the incoming editor-in-chief of the Marist Circle, the college’s student-run publication.
“I’ve been involved with the paper since the first opportunity I had freshman year,” Battinelli said. “I’ve been consistently writing, working my way up as an editor.”
Battinelli said she is eager to deepen her understanding of community reporting in the region.
“I think local journalism is important because being a part of a community is so rewarding for so many people,” she said. “We should all be working together to better our surroundings and the community and the relationships we have with each other.”
Shah, who grew up in Gujaret, India and lives in Queens, is pursuing a master’s degree in journalism with a concentration in data reporting and local accountability. Her work focuses on government transparency and climate issues affecting local communities. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Pandit Deendayal Energy University in international relations and literature and is expected to graduate from CUNY in December.
“I really want to get good at understanding the granular details of how a town functions,” Shah said. “Just living in a small town is a new experience for me.”
Shah added that the landscape of the Hudson Valley made a strong first impression: “I’ve been living in New York City for two years, and even before that I lived in an urban enivornment. So just the proximity to forest land is very striking to me.”
After graduation, Battinelli hopes to pursue a career in journalism, with a particular interest in photojournalism and editing, while Shah is focused on developing a career in data journalism focused on environmental reporting.