Meet Nadia Khan, PressProgress’ 2024 Summer Labour Reporting Intern

As the media landscape shifts, investing in the next generation of journalists is more important than ever. PressProgress is proud to be at the forefront of this mission by hosting a second labour intern this year in our fourth annual Labour Reporting Internship Program. This summer, we welcomed Nadia Khan, an aspiring culture-critic whose passion for people-centered journalism is making meaningful impact.

I’m thrilled to share that I’ll be working as a Labour Reporting Intern at @pressprogress starting mid-July(!!!!). So excited for this next step in my career as a writer and journalist. 📰✒🌎🌟

— nadia khan (@nadiaknowsall) July 7, 2024

Nadia has a bright future ahead, entering her final year of English Literature at the University of Waterloo and already making a name for herself with op-eds published in Teen Vogue, the Toronto Star and Canadian Dimension. This fall, she will also be attending the Toronto International Film Festival as a critic for their Media Inclusion Initiative.

“As a kid, I was really assertive and blunt, so as an adult, it only seemed natural that I put that to good use and became a journalist,” Nadia says. “Really though, I just love human-centred storytelling and labour journalism is just an extension of that. Everyone works so I love how applicable labour journalism is to my own day-to-day life.”

Nadia also believes that intersectionality is lacking in Canadian labour coverage. “Growing up, I didn’t think unions were relevant to me or my family because my parents didn’t work in a steel factory and weren’t working-class in the typical sense, even though I watched my mom come home late from working in a coffee shop. With our changing economy and population comes a more diverse working-class and with that, the need for more stories that speak to those lived experiences.”

Nadia hopes that during her internship, she can inspire others, especially young people, to learn more about labour issues. “I’m in university and I’m around a lot of young twenty-somethings who’ve been mistreated in the workplace or routinely struggle to afford groceries so I hope that thinking and talking more about labour emboldens others to demand the treatment they deserve.”