About

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Emily Busch is a UMN senior majoring in journalism and psychology with a minor in outdoor recreation and education. She enjoys writing about local events, sports and features. She loves learning about new people and places as well as producing multimedia content. In her spare time, you can find her camping, traveling, or binge-watching Netflix.

 

 

 


Katie Lauer
is an arts and entertainment reporter for the Minnesota Daily, but she loves to unearth stories in all areas. John Mayer and caffeine fuel her soul, but so does a healthy amount of burritos from her other part time job at Chipotle.

 

 

 

 


Chris Lemke is a third-year student majoring in journalism and technical writing. Although he thoroughly enjoys community journalism, he often finds himself drifting over to reading the national and world news sections. The first two mental health stories that he wrote about flowed naturally into each other, and his third story reflects how he has taken an interest in the campus’ buildings since he was a freshman.

 

 

 


Lianna Matt
is a popcorn addict, a fan of Taylor Swift, and an avid fan of the Oxford comma. Luckily, as a journalist, she gets to talk with people much cooler than she all of the time. As editor of Access U, she has had great glee in procrastinating other homework in favor of reading people’s articles.

 

 

 

 


Barney Min
is a fourth-year student studying journalism and computer science as well as the web manager of Access U. He hopes to combine his journalistic skills with his understanding of technology to help people understand the interplay between technology, data and society. Also an avid musician, you can catch him and his band, The Lockpicks, playing in your local bars and coffee shops.

 

 

 


Abel Mehari
is a fourth-year student studying journalism, sports writing, and some broadcast journalism. He’s heavily interested in sports writing, covering basketball, football, and baseball. But finds new skills in video producing and storytelling in covering sports events, or local news if necessary. He enjoyed interviewing colorful people and allows the subject to freely speak without any interruptions. In his free time, he likes talking about the NBA, NFL or MLB during phases of sports season, and plays basketball for the Special Olympics.

 

 



Erik Newland
is a Journalism major who is just about to graduate. He writes about academic life at the University, but has worked on everything from covering protests to biking news. In his free time he is something of a doughnut connoisseur and secretly wants to be a food writer.

 

 

 

 


Janessa Palmer
bridged the gap between Janessa’s sciency friends and the not-so-sciency ones, by deciding to go into journalism, writing, recording and transcribing big ideas into terms everyone can understand. When not studying or on assignment, Janessa enjoys talking education policy, horseback riding, or long hikes through a state park.

 

 

 

 


Sally Samaha
is a UMN student studying broadcast journalism. Aside from her love for the fashion world, she also has a strong interest in global issues and community news.

 

 

 

 

 


Chance Wellnitz
is assistant editor at Access U and a columnist at the Minnesota Daily. He’s heard all of your puns on his name but will politely laugh anyway.