TWO WAY: End of internship reflection with Luke Geier

KRPS | By Rachel Schnelle ,

Published August 4, 2026 at 3:00 AM CDT

Luke Geier interviewing an attendee at the Route 66 100th anniversary celebration in Baxter Springs, Kansas, on April 30, 2026.

Luke Geier is a rising senior at Pitt State, studying Media Production. He's worked with KRPS since Janurary as part of the Thomas E. and Linda Beal Broadcasting Scholarship for the spring semester in addition to being a student worker this summer. Rachel Schnelle spoke with Geier about what he's learned over the past seven months working with KRPS>

SCHNELLE:Here at KRPS, we have had a spring and winter,and then also we added another summer intern. Luke Geier has been with us since January as part of our internship scholarship. We wanted to do an end of the semester, end of summer intern reflection. So ,Luke, great to have you with us.

SCHNELLE:What was your experience of public media before your internship,and what is it now?

GEIER:Yes, so before I came into KRPS,as an intern.Ididn'thave a lot of experience with public media. I had the chance to work for the Collegio, which was the campus newspaper at Pittsburgh State, andI'vedone a lot of things in my department. I'm a mediaproductionsmajor at PittState.But as far as working for any publication that was outside Pittsburgh State, I hadn't had that experience yet, so I was excited to enter KRPS as an intern.I'dbeen a fan of public radio before I took theinternship,and it wasa reasonwhyIapplied. ButI think I have a different understanding, like when I listen to it, working as an intern on the inside

SCHNELLE:You kind of understand how it functions and when you're listening to something,you're like, oh, I know what that's called or something like that.

GEIER:Definitely. Workinghere as an intern gavemean inside perspective, I feellike.SoIlistendifferently.

SCHNELLE:What has been your favorite type of story to produce or your favorite type of story?So,you havedone twofeatures,you'vedone at leastonetwo-way,andyou'vedone at least two to three different types of stories on a weekly basis.

SCHNELLE:So,what has been your favorite thing so far thatyou'veproduced?

GEIER:Yeah, I've enjoyed all the stories that I've written and voiced and produced forKRPS.Ithink the one that left the biggest impression on me- it's kind of like a three-parter I did for the H.Lee Scott Speaker Series. I got to talk to Bill Nye first when he came, spring, and then also got to talk toDaymondJohn.And then I did my first feature overtheH.LeeScott Speaker Seriesasit'sbeen going for 10 years.And to see the development and learn about it and the historywas aprettyrewardingexperience.

SCHNELLE:So,is there anything that, you know, say someone asks you, what was the internship like?How would you describe this to them?

GEIER:I would describe it as, honestly,it'sa little bit of everythingwhenyou'rehere.WhenI came in, I was not sure what moving part or piece I would be working on. It was a wonderful experience to learn how all the moving parts fit together.

SCHNELE: I'vespent a lot of time working withyou,andyou'vedevelopedthe nicheskillofwritingradio. You want to make sure you have enough context, but also that you are not writing too long sentences or it's a muscle that you develop over time.

SCHNELLE:Tell me a little bit about yourself for those who have listened to your stories and are wondering who is Luke Geier?

GEIER:Yeah, sure. I’m from Olathe, Kansas, which isasuburb of Kansas City, came to Pitt State in fall of 2023 and enrolled as a comm student and I've been a media production student since then. I'll be going into my senior year this year and I'm going to be anticipating graduation in 2027.

Yeah,that's pretty much it as far as what I'm doing at PittState. I'm excited to graduate and hopefully find some more opportunities in the journalism world, whether that be with radio or television or in print. I really enjoyed doing this since I guess the last seven months since January.

SCHNELLE:Is there anything that you've learned about either writing a story or storytelling in general from this internship?

GEIER:Yeah,definitely. I think the two things that I'velearned mainly, maybe first in interviewing, not to be afraid to ask even more clarifying questions.Maybe in the beginning when I first interviewed some people, I would look back and go, oh, if only I'd asked that, then I wouldn't have to look this up. So that's a big one. And then setting the scene for stories has been a big one also, because at the end of the day, you are telling a story.

SCHNELLE:Well,we're thankful for you and you've helped us out a lot,not just keeping a lively newsroom, but also with adding a more robust news team.So we're very grateful for you.