Beyond the Newsroom: Olivia McArthur’s Internship at Flatwater Free Press

On an afternoon in Omaha, Olivia McArthur is in her element. The third-year journalism and media communications major is not in a classroom but helping host a public panel at the Flatwater Free Press Festival, checking in guests, chatting with local reporters, and soaking up every moment.

“We had our FlatFest a couple weeks ago, and that was the best day ever for me,” she said.

It’s exactly the kind of experience she hoped for when she chose the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) for college.

Finding Her Path to UNO and Journalism

A native of Kearney, Nebraska, McArthur wanted to stay in-state for school and craved a close-knit environment.

“I just knew I would fit in better at UNO. Other schools felt like they were going to be too big for me,” she said of her decision to move to Omaha in 2023.

McArthur first fell in love with journalism back in high school, writing for her school’s news magazine The Echo.

“I really fell in love with doing that, and that’s where I knew I wanted to keep going in this direction,” she said.

It didn’t take long for her to continue that journey at UNO. She became editor-in-chief of the UNO Honors Program newsletter, The Distinction, during her first year.

Connecting the Classroom to the City

In one of her introductory journalism classes, a guest panel of professionals introduced her to the Flatwater Free Press, Nebraska’s first independent, nonprofit newsroom focusing on investigative and feature reporting.

She signed up for the newsletter the next day.

More than a year later, her interest in the paper’s reporting would pay off. When McArthur spotted an opening for a Flatwater Free Press internship on Handshake, UNO’s Career Services platform for student employment, she jumped at the chance.

After a competitive multi-round interview process, McArthur learned she’d landed the role. However, it wasn’t a traditional reporting gig at all, but an internship with Flatwater’s development team. This is the department that handles donor relations, events, and fundraising to support the newsroom. Despite not having a writing-based role, McArthur was excited to contribute to the inner workings of a publication.

“I told them I love learning any way I can and taking on new challenges,” she said.

McArthur’s internship is a perfect example of what happens when opportunity finds its spark. At UNO, her classroom lessons didn’t stay confined to textbooks; they came alive across Omaha. Through the university’s deep community connections, she turned theory into action, building the kind of real-world experience that launches careers long before graduation day.

“Olivia is a valuable part of our organization in her role as a development intern. As a journalism major, she is getting a behind the scenes look at how our newsroom operates, how journalists report stories, and what it takes to support journalism from a business perspective,” said Barbara Soderlin, her internship supervisor at FFP. “She is also learning about how any nonprofit organization works to engage donors in raising money to support its mission and operations.”

Through resources like Handshake and professors who go out of their way to support students, UNO bridges the gap between learning and doing. For Olivia, that bridge led straight to Flatwater Free Press, a newsroom that’s teaching her just as much about community as it is about journalism.