[Editor’s Note: Maddie Stoll is a native of London studying economics and public policy at the University of Chicago. She is wrapping up a reporting internship at GeekWire this week.]
I got here to Seattle with no clear image of what a summer time internship at GeekWire would appear to be. I definitely didn’t anticipate it to start out with flashing lights and a protest scene. On simply my second day, I used to be dashing with GeekWire co-founder Todd Bishop to Microsoft’s Redmond campus — sirens in every single place, dozens of police automobiles lined up.
Minutes later, I used to be in the course of a protest, armed with nothing greater than my cellphone and a GeekWire lanyard, single-handedly combating the impostor syndrome, capturing somebody being handcuffed, pepper-ball welts recent on his again. That was the second I realised my internship would throw me straight into the deep finish — and actually, there was no higher method to get began.
From there, the tempo by no means actually slowed. One week, I used to be interviewing startup founders and writing about AI in faculties; the following, I used to be studying to make use of an expert digital camera for the primary time at a Microsoft alumni occasion, or touring floating houses on Lake Union. Seattle pulled me from story to story and body to border.
Impressions of the town
I grew up in London, and now I research in Chicago. Each cities formed my sense of city life: London, polished and cosmopolitan; Chicago, daring and bustling however softened by its Midwestern heat. Seattle, although, was new to me. And moving into it, I instantly sensed one thing completely different.
Seattle struck me as slower and extra introspective than both London or Chicago, however each bit as formidable. Its id appears tied to know-how and creativity, however equally to life-style: espresso, mountain climbing, biking, and ferries! The town looks like it’s negotiating between its world tech presence and its intimate, outdoorsy character.
What stood out to me as an outsider have been the little quirks you solely discover when you’re right here. I’d heard in regards to the so-called “Seattle Freeze” and anticipated to really feel it. As an alternative, I discovered individuals friendlier than I’d imagined — extra open than in London, even when not fairly as immediately heat as in Chicago — and the interactions I had felt sort and welcoming.
Getting round with no automobile had its challenges, however I used to be struck by how walkable and bike-friendly many neighbourhoods are, which makes exploring the town really feel simple and pleasing.
Then there’s the more durable edge: seen homelessness and issues about crime, reminders of the financial pressures that include Seattle’s tech-driven growth. It’s a metropolis of innovation and development, but additionally of stark contrasts — the place gleaming skyscrapers and tents can share the identical block.
But, regardless of these complexities, Seattle felt like a metropolis nonetheless defining itself, and one which invited reflection as a lot as ambition. For somebody arriving from the surface, that blend of contradictions is fascinating.
The journalism itself
GeekWire threw me into Seattle’s tech scene from the very begin. I had the chance to cowl an enormous vary: AI in faculties, startups making Madrona’s IA40 checklist, agricultural tech improvements, and even the Allen Institute sending stem cells into area. A couple of moments stand out:
- Writing in regards to the subsequent chapter for AI in faculties — exploring how schooling is cautiously embracing AI instruments.
- Assembly Seattle’s travelling math magician — aiming to construct a bodily maths museum for the town, and reiterated how a lot problem-solving nonetheless issues within the AI age.
- Working with reporter Lisa Stiffler on my story about WSU’s strawberry-picking robotic — it makes use of puffs of air to search out the ripest fruit, a surprisingly difficult process for robots! Lisa additionally walked me via her modifying course of on this story, which was fascinating to see.
- Interviewing Miki and Anantika, the FoundHer Home founders — two college students, each from Seattle, who launched an all-female AI hacker home in San Francisco, giving younger girls a spot to dwell, construct startups, and assist one another throughout the metropolis’s AI growth. Interviewing them was particularly inspiring as a result of they’re basically my age, but already reshaping what entrepreneurship can appear to be for ladies in tech.
- Touring Recompose, Seattle’s human composting funeral house, with reporter Kurt Schlosser — an expertise that highlighted the creativity of know-how and the vary of matters GeekWire covers.
Alongside the best way, I had the possibility to take a seat in on a number of the metropolis’s huge conversations – from Microsoft president Brad Smith on the Seattle Metro Chamber, to alumni and entrepreneurs at Microsoft Alumni Community Join 2025 occasion, to the Breaking the Glass Ceiling girls’s management occasion with chief gross sales and advertising officer Holly Grambihler, senior gross sales strategist Miya Doane and venture supervisor Jessica Reeves, in addition to GeekWire’s very personal deck social gathering.
Dwelling in Seattle
Work was solely half the story. Dwelling in a Fremont hostel gave me a front-row seat to the neighbourhood’s classic attraction: Thai meals on each nook, the buzzing Sunday market, countless espresso, and Lime scooters gliding alongside the Burke-Gilman Path.
Once I wasn’t in Fremont, I used to be dog-sitting in Queen Anne. Between walks with Otis, the canine of GeekWire co-founder John Cook dinner’s brother, and evenings spent at Kerry Park, I bought to see a quieter, neighbourhood-y aspect of Seattle, with a number of the greatest views of its skyline.
And I attempted to squeeze in as a lot as I might, highlights being:
- Watching the sundown at Golden Gardens.
- A weekend journey to the San Juan Islands.
- Mountain climbing at Mount Rainier.
- Wandering the Washington Park Arboretum.
- Getting misplaced within the glass on the Chihuly museum.
- Seeing the Pacific from Ocean Shores.
- Exploring the Seattle Artwork Museum and particularly its Ai Weiwei exhibit.
- Absorbing the Bumbershoot music competition.
Hacks, Snacks, and AI
One of many quirkiest and most helpful components of the internship was experimenting with AI in journalism itself. Instruments like Otter.ai sped up transcriptions; ChatGPT provided constructive suggestions on my writing, supplementing cautious edits by GeekWire editor Taylor Soper; and Jessica’s “Hacks & Snacks” workshop confirmed me how AI might lighten the load of administrative duties.
It wasn’t nearly studying new tech methods. It was about creating this tradition of transparency round AI, and recognising how the business I need to enter is already being reshaped. As this internship demonstrated, each via the tales I lined and the work contained in the newsroom, AI can’t be ignored. It’s right here — as a software, a problem, and a frontier the place journalists should frequently redefine and defend their craft.
By the top, my summer time felt like a collage: protests and panels, deadlines and canines, ferries and festivals. Seattle could also be slower than London and extra easygoing than Chicago, but it surely’s each bit as formidable – and I felt that ambition within the rhythm of my days right here.
Thanks to everybody I met alongside the best way!
