Qualls joins Interior Journal team as Kentucky Press Association intern 

Published 12:52 am Friday, May 12, 2017

Staff Report 

STANFORD – A new face has joined The Interior Journal’s editorial team as the newspaper welcomed Kentucky Press Association summer intern Joshua Qualls this week. 

Qualls, 30, of Lexington, will serve as Kentucky Press Association intern for ten weeks. 

Qualls

Email newsletter signup

A recent graduate of the University of Kentucky, Qualls received his diploma on Friday, May 5, earning his bachelor’s degree in print and multimedia journalism with a minor in sociology. 

Qualls left his mark after working for UK’s student publication The Kentucky Kernel as news editor, staff photographer and chief copy editor. He was at the helm of the student paper when it received the Associated Collegiate Press’ Newspaper Pacemaker award – said to be the “college equivalent” of the Pulitzer Prize. 

Just this year, Qualls’ work at The Kentucky Kernel earned him several awards during the Kentucky Press Association’s annual banquet including first place for best breaking news coverage as well as best general news picture. 

Qualls has also completed internships at two other newspapers including the Lexington Herald-Leader and The Huntington Herald-Dispatch. 

“We are excited to put Qualls’ experience and enthusiasm for journalism to work for Lincoln County,” said Interior Journal Editor Abigail Whitehouse. “Qualls brings with him a lot of knowledge and respect for journalism and I believe he will help us provide our readers with even more great local news coverage during his time here.” 

Getting to know the Lincoln County community is something Qualls said he looks forward to doing as he settles into his 10-week position. 

“I’m really looking forward to telling great stories that I hope will have a positive impact on the community,” he said. Qualls said as a sociology student and journalist he has a natural interest in socioeconomic impacts, particular on low-income communities. 

“I focused a lot of my studies in sociology on education, health care, race and ethnicity in low-income communities,” he said. 

Qualls grew up in Arkansas before moving to Ohio and then Lexington, where he currently resides.

His love of music, however, has allowed him to travel across the United States and even to Europe as a member of what he described as a “post-rock” band.

Although he left the band “The End of the Ocean” about a year-and-a-half ago, Qualls said the cinematic, instrumental band put out a few albums and he toured in and out of the country playing the guitar. Still, Qualls said he has a deep love for Kentucky. 

“I spent a lot of my time growing up in Kentucky and fell in love with it for various reasons,” he said. 

Qualls has officially stepped into his IJ reporter shoes this week – anyone with news tips can email him at joshua.qualls@centralkynews.com.