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The Statehouse File looks back on 20 years of history and hard work for its student journalists

• By Anna Cecil, TheStatehouseFile.com
• Jun 3, 2025 Updated 7 hrs ago

TSF through the years

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TSF reporters Sydney Byerly, left, and Kyra Howard cover Election Day 2023.

• Photo provided.

2013 file photo: Franklin College students Timothy Cox and Samm Quinn – both reporters at TheStatehouseFile.com – won 1st Place on Friday night in a government and politics reporting category at a Society of Professional Journalists awards banquet. Students Adrian Gillaspy and Sandie Love were also part of the winning team but did not attend the ceremony.

2014 file photo: From left, Zach Osowski, Jessica Wray, Samm Quinn and John Krull were among reporters for TheStatehouseFile.com who took home Society of Professional Journalists awards at a Friday night ceremony. Osowski and Quinn graduated from Franklin College last year. Wray will graduate this month and Krull is the online news site’s publisher.

2015 file photo: Seniors Alec Gray and Seth Morin won second place Friday at the Society of Professional Journalists “Best of Indiana Journalism” awards night for the series 30 Laws in 30 Days. Sophomore Jess Seabolt, who could not attend, shared in the award. Photo by Lesley Weidenbener, TheStatehouseFile.com

2015 file photo.

2021 file photo: Pictured left to write, Taylor Wooten, Alexa Shrake, Tabby Fitzgerald, Haley Pritchett, Carolina Puga Mendoza and Isaac Gleitz, all Franklin College students and Statehouse File reporters, were six of 10 finalists at the 35^th annual Thomas R. Keating Competition in Indianapolis Saturday. Wooten claimed third prize while Shrake took second.

Statehouse File reporter Maddie Alexander interviews a protester at the Indiana Statehouse during the 2022 legislative session.

• Photo by Isaac Gleitz, TheStatehouseFile.com.

2023 file photo: Ashlyn Myers, a sophomore at Franklin College and a Statehouse File reporter, interviews a person attending Arc of Indiana’s Valentine’s Day event Tuesday at the Indiana Statehouse.

• Photo by Xain Ballenger, TheStatehouseFile.com.

2023 file photo: The Statehouse File reporter Ashlyn Myers speaking with students from James Russell Lowell School 51. (left-to-right) Kaeden, Gabby and La’Nyha were the some of the main students to present their project poster.

• Photo by Xain Ballenger, TheStatehouseFile.com.

2023 file photo: Statehouse File reporter and Franklin College journalism major Xain Ballenger showed his little sister, 7-year-old Aulee Pittman, around the Statehouse on Tuesday. Upstairs lawmakers discussed teachers carrying handguns in classrooms while downstairs Aulee found better uses for her time.

• Photo by Colleen Steffen, TheStatehouseFile.com.

2023 file photo: Franklin College Pulliam School of Journalism students Isaac Gleitz, left, and Sydney Byerly were just two Statehouse File reporters earning national recognition this spring.

• Staff photo

2023 file photo: Ten-year-old Evelyn Arlean Matthew of Auburn, a fifth grader at Lakewood Park Christian School, talks with Statehouse File reporter Kayla Barlow on Friday, the first day of the Indiana State Fair, where Evelyn was competing with her llama Cru.

• Photo by Kyra Howard, TheStatehouseFile.com.

2023 file photo: Statehouse File Reporter Sydney Byerly speaking with Dana Black, about why she came out to support Joe Hogsett. Black danced and celebrated with other Democrats over Hogsett’s victory.

• Photo by Xain Ballenger, TheStatehouseFile.com.

The TSF team works in the WFYI newsroom in downtown Indianapolis during the November 2023 election.

• Photo by Colleen Steffen, TheStatehouseFile.com.

TSF reporter Sydney Byerly interviews Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb in his Statehouse office in 2023.

• Photo by Kyra Howard, TheStatehouseFile.com.

The TSF team interview Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch in January 2023 at the Franklin College Pulliam School of Journalism.

• Photo by TheStatehouseFile.com.

2023 file photo: Always a treat for the college students when the Be Real notification goes off and they happen to be doing something cool—like reporting from the downtown Indianapolis offices of WFYI.

• Photo by Colleen Steffen, TheStatehouseFile.com.

2024 file photo: From left, Statehouse File reporters Mia Frankenfield, Arianna Hunt, Kyra Howard, Ashlyn Myers, Bessie Kerr, Jaelyn Allen, John Asplund, Sanjida Tanim, Sam Maurer, Schyler Altherr and DeMarion Newell, in the Indiana House Chamber this week.

• Photo by TheStatehouseFile.com.

2024 file photo: TheStatehouseFile.com reporter Ashlyn Myers interviews Melinda Tourangeau on her experience as a campaign volunteer after Nikki Haley’s Thursday meet-and-greet in Hollis, New Hampshire.

• Photo by Sydney Byerly, TheStatehouseFile.com.

2024 file photo: From left, Statehouse File reporters Hannah Johnson, DeMarion Newell and John Asplund at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

• Staff Photo, TheStatehouseFile.com.

2024 file photo: Statehouse File reporter Kyra Howard makes a friend on Goat Mountain.

• Staff photo, TheStatehouseFile.com.

TSF reporter Maggie McGuire is delighted to discover a small cow in the middle of Goat Mountain at the 2023 Indiana State Fair.

• Staff photo, TheStatehouseFile.com.

2024 file photo: Statehouse File reporter Lauren Agee, right, interviews election worker Debi Green at the Johnson County Fairgrounds voting station Tuesday.

• Photo by Ian Shaw, TheStatehouseFile.com.

2024 file photo: Statehouse File reporter Trinity Schroeder interviews voters at the polling location at the Martinsville Senior Center in Morgan County.

• TheStatehouseFile.com.

2024 file photo: Franklin College journalism student and Statehouse Reporter Jyllian Antle, of Shelbyville, holds her media pass to Election Day’s Republican watch party. She called the almost 20-hour day covering her second-ever election one of the most exciting of her life, solidifying her choice of career. “Being able to work alongside my peers in a professional environment was a great learning experience,” she said.

• Photo by Colleen Steffen, TheStatehouseFile.com.

2024 file photo: Franklin College journalism student and Statehouse File reporter Jakson Page interviews a voter in Hendricks County on Nov. 5.

• Photo by DeMarion Newell, TheStatehouseFile.com.

TSF reporter John Asplund gets ready to video a pig race at the 2023 Indiana State Fair.

• Photo by Colleen Steffen, TheStatehouseFile.com.

John Asplund and DeMarion Newell try their hands at filling potholes in downtown Indianapolis—for a story, of course—in spring 2024.

• Photo provided.

2024 file photo: The January Term TSF team hard at work in a crowded Shack.

• Photo by Colleen Steffen, TheStatehouseFile.com.

Long days in the Shack mean the occasional desk nap—in this case by DeMarion Newell, late in the 2024 legislative session.

• Photo by Colleen Steffen, TheStatehouseFile.com.

Twenty years ago, back before iPhones, Instagram or Uber existed, Franklin College journalism students were facing a challenge—finding sources, stories and real-world journalism experience within the small community that was and still is Franklin, Indiana.

Franklin College Pulliam School of Journalism Director and Statehouse File Publisher John Krull pulled from his years of experience as an Indianapolis Star writer and columnist (as seen here, early in his career) in creating a real-world experience for FC journalism students.

Photo provided.

So in 2005, John Krull, director of the Pulliam School of Journalism, decided to invent a solution. He founded the Statehouse Reporting Bureau, a free news publication run by Franklin College students that offered political coverage of the Indiana Statehouse that other outlets throughout the state could pick up.

“I thought, I’m going to take a group of students out of their comfort zone and take them up to Indy,” Krull said.

By 2011, Krull, who was both editing and publishing the student stories, was looking for a full-time editor—someone to guide his brainchild into its next phase as a student-powered news website called TheStatehouseFile.com (TSF).

Today, while the website is 13 years old, Franklin College’s tradition of immersing students in state politics is celebrating its 20th year.

More than an editor

Graphic by TheStatehouseFile.com.

As Krull searched for his TSF editor, Lesley Weidenbener, a longtime Statehouse reporter, found herself jobless—but not for long.

In August 2011, she was hired as TheStatehouseFile.com’s very first editor with over 20 students in her cohort.

“It was just kind of this crazy whirlwind where we were covering almost every hearing and every meeting,” she said. “We were just cranking it out.”

Weidenbener’s students were not just writing but also producing video content and a podcast, all aided by her background knowledge of reporting on the Indiana General Assembly.

Before Weidenbener was TSF’s editor, she wrote Indiana Statehouse stories for The Journal Gazette in Fort Wayne and The Courier-Journal in Louisville.

“It was easy for me to walk in and know the people that students needed,” she said.

Lesley Weidenbener, pictured with a student early in her Statehouse File stint, established a TSF precedent for the women editors who would follow her in serving as both empathetic mother figure and tough-as-nails editor to the students in the Shack.

Photo provided.

The Statehouse File students, both then and now, work in a small office they call “the Shack.” During Weidenbener’s time, she and her husband did several projects including installing a countertop desk and new light fixtures. She tasked one student with installing a fan in the ceiling to help create some air flow.

“It (the Shack) was just like a craft project, putting it all together,” Weidenbener said.

One fault of the Shack’s design, which Weidenbener could not solve, was its size. To help bandage this problem, she created what she called “the Annex,” which was folding tables set up in the hallway where students could work.

At one point in her TSF editor career, Krull landed Weidenbener’s team a work space in the Emmis Corporation offices nearby. This did not stop them from having fun, however.

One day during a summer term, Lesley brought her Wii to the Emmis office. The original intent for the game console was to do a Jeopardy tournament, but it ended up taking permanent residence.

“Every day during lunch time, we had some kind of Wii tournament,” she said. “Of course, Emmis employees would walk by and we’d be playing Wii golf.”

Lauren Casey Bemis, one of the first Statehouse File student journalists, attributes her professional success in broadcast news to what she learned while reporting in the Shack.

Photo provided: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-casey-bemis-4721402b5/overlay/photo/

Lauren Casey Bemis, who worked under Weidenbener for most of her time as a Franklin College student, attributes her professional success to what she learned while reporting forTheStatehouseFile.com.

She started her journalism career at the Indiana Statehouse during the January term of her freshman year. Her first task was covering the State of the State address, which is given each year by the governor in the House chamber.

“I was a freshman, and I’m sitting next to people who have been working and reporting at the Statehouse for decades,” Casey Bemis said. “Getting to write that article, it’s just really cool that John and everyone who is involved would trust a freshman, who is a new journalist, to do this.”

FC journalism student Jesse Bickley attends a press conference at the Indiana Statehouse early in TSF’s history as a flagship immersive-learning program at Franklin College.

Photo provided.

Casey Bemis said The Statehouse File program stands out among student-journalism experiences across the country because it prepares students to do professional work.

“It’s so hard to get that experience in the classroom,” she said. “Working at The Statehouse File, you might be interviewing the governor. You might be interviewing the speaker of the House. … By the time you graduate from Franklin, it’s like, you’re not scared to go do an interview. … Once you get the confidence to do that, you can go out and do this job in the real world because you’ve been doing it for years in college.”

During the summer between her junior and senior years of college, Casey Bemis did an internship with WRTV, a TV news outlet in Indianapolis. At the end of the summer, the station offered her a job to work there as the morning traffic reporter.

Because she had enough credits to graduate in three years, Casey Bemis dropped her second major and took the job as a full-time reporter in “Market 25,” which is the term for the Indianapolis media market.

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“No one, typically, especially back then, would go from college to Market 25 on air,” she said. “I only think it was possible because I had already been working as basically a professional from The Statehouse File.”

For 11 years, Casey Bemis worked at WRTV and eventually became a morning news anchor. She is now a PR and marketing strategist for Pence Media Group.

Like Casey-Bemis, Weidenbener said she would not be where she is now without her experiences at TheStatehouseFile.com.

“The Franklin College job could not have come at a better time. Before that, I had zero interest in being an editor,” she said. “The Statehouse File created a situation where I still did a lot of writing, but I could learn how to be an editor in a situation that was not as high stakes. … I would not be where I am today if I hadn’t had the great fortune to take the job at Franklin.”

Weidenbener is now the editor and assistant publisher of Indianapolis Business Journal (IBJ).

Samm Quinn, Indianapolis Business Journal managing editor, began writing for The Statehouse File as a sophomore at Franklin College.

Photo provided: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samm-quinn-6224a449/overlay/photo/.

There she works with former TSF student Samm Quinn, who is IBJ’s managing editor.

Quinn began writing for The Statehouse File during the January term of her sophomore year, back when it was still called the Statehouse Reporting Bureau.

By the end of her junior year, Quinn was passed over for a job with The Franklin, FC’s on-campus student news publication, and had been through a bad internship experience. At this point, she said she was tempted to quit journalism.

But that is when Krull hired Weidenbener.

“If it had not been for [TSF and Weidenbener], I’m not sure if I had stuck with journalism,” Quinn said. “Working with someone who had just been doing the job that I wanted to do and who was so encouraging and helpful, and who made me feel like I could do this, and I was made for this, … it was life changing for me.”

Quinn said her experiences while writing for The Statehouse File helped her land her first job.

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When she first began looking, Quinn said she checked the websitejournalismjobs.com, which revealed only a few open positions across the state. But because The Commercial Review in Portland, Indiana, knew about The Statehouse File and her work, she was hired despite such a tight market.

“I know they hired me because they were impressed with the work I had done with The Statehouse File,” Quinn said. “I don’t think I would have gotten that job had I not done that.”

She added that The Statehouse File prepared her in ways other newspaper internships could not. For Quinn, the experience taught her how to cover complicated topics, ask tough questions, read through confusing files and interview people she did not know.

“That was the most formative experience of my entire college experience. It made me interested in government, and I continued to cover that until I became an editor,” Quinn said. “It gave me a start that I otherwise would not have had. I don’t think it could be replicated anywhere else.”

Excitement in Indiana 

Rachel Bragg, TSF’s second executive editor.

Photo provided: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachelhoffmeyer/overlay/photo/.

In 2015, Rachel Bragg took on the role of TSF’s second executive editor.

Within the first year of her new job, Bragg and her students were tasked with covering the 2016 election. For Indiana, this one was unique because then-Gov. Mike Pence came off the ticket as the gubernatorial candidate and ran for vice president of the U.S. instead, which caused changes all the way down the state’s ballot.

“There was a lot of excitement in Indiana,” Bragg said.

Adrianna Pitrelli, one of Bragg’s former students, said she covered Pence’s journey to second in command and was so dedicated that she drove from Indiana to New York City overnight to witness his official nomination.

In the same week, Pitrelli and her Shack-mates covered the Republican and Democratic national conventions. Bragg said this experience helped them learn to report on breaking news in an unfamiliar environment.

“That was really unique because the students were hanging out with the national press corp,” she said. “The students were right there with journalists from all the top-tier publications. … It’s very much a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Many journalists will never get a chance to cover a national convention like that. The students were amazing.”

An early TSF student, Natavia Howell, at the Indiana Statehouse.

Photo provided.

For Pitrelli, the experience was extra special because she drove straight from NYC to Cleveland to cover the RNC.

“Being on the campaign trail in 2016, especially with Mike Pence being the governor at the time, is one of the stories I still tell to this day because it was a surreal experience,” Pitrelli said.

Observing students learn through experiences like the ones Pitrelli had were Bragg’s favorite part of the job. She said she enjoyed watching them grow in their technical journalism expertise and in the soft skills they could not learn in a traditional classroom.

“It was so incredible to get to meet students as freshmen and then watch them evolve and grow, whether that be in their writing skills, their creativity or even just their confidence,” she said. “Even things like learning how to drive downtown and how to park. … It was very gratifying to watch students really grow into their own confidence and passion for journalism.”

Bragg said The Statehouse File is especially valuable for career preparation.

“The Statehouse File provides an incredible opportunity for students to get hands-on experience that will serve them for the rest of their career,” Bragg said. “If they decide to spend their entire career in journalism or if they decide to branch out and do something different, The Statehouse File teaches students how to be great communicators, which is core to all types of work.”

Pitrelli echoed Bragg’s sentiment but from the student perspective.

“They (editors) helped not only to learn about journalism, not only to learn about the legislative process, but just about working a first job and time management and career building and networking— in general, just being a person,” Pitrelli said. “I think that it was definitely the most transformational part of my entire college experience.”

Bragg is now the senior director of strategic operations and internal management at Eli Lilly and Company. Pitrelli is the deputy director of communications for the Illinois State Senate Democrats.

Recent editorial staff

TSF’s third executive editor, Janet Williams.

Photo provided.

In 2017, Janet Williams assumed the position of TheStatehouseFile.com’s third executive editor. Williams’ experiences at The Indianapolis Star, The Pittsburgh Press and Cummins Inc. proved invaluable as she navigated tumultuous times for Franklin College.

In January 2020, the college’s president, Thomas Minar, was arrested and found guilty of child sex crimes.

“Under Williams’ leadership,TheStatehouseFile.com and The Franklin established themselves as authoritative sources for reliable information about Minar’s arrest, which made national news,” Krull wrote in a special 20th anniversary print edition of TSF last month.

Later in 2020, Williams retired to focus on traveling and mystery writing, handing TSF’s reins over to Colleen Steffen, a 1994 Franklin College graduate.

Colleen Steffen, right, with the January term 2025 cohort of Statehouse File students, in the Statehouse basement office known as “the Shack.”

Photo by TheStatehouseFile.com.

Before she became its executive editor, Steffen taught journalism at Ball State University, co-leading pop-up newsrooms at three Olympic Games and writing a textbook on soft skills for young journalists. Before teaching, she spent 13 years as a writer and editor for newspapers in Muncie, Indiana; Anderson, Indiana; Jacksonville, Florida; and Elizabethtown, Kentucky.

During the legislative session, Steffen’s students provide daily coverage of all things Indiana General Assembly. But when lawmakers are on break, Steffen gives students other opportunities.

Every summer, they work full time at the Indiana State Fair, and The Statehouse File becomes “The State Fair File,” covering rodeos, fair queens, 4-H llama shows and much more.

“It’s just another way to practice in public, which is the best way for journalists to learn,” said Steffen. “You might not expect it, but it has its own challenges that can be just as difficult as approaching a senator on the chamber floor or deciphering the state budget—though possibly it’s a little more fun.”

TSF reporter Caleb Crockett, right, talks to Peyton Hendershot of the Kansas City Chiefs at Super Bowl Opening Night in New Orleans.

Photo by TheStatehouseFile.com.

Hoping to create even more opportunities for TSF and FC students, this year Steffen, Krull and Scott McDaniel, department chair of the Pulliam School of Journalism, started an initiative they call “The State Sports File.” It sent journalism and sports communication students to the Super Bowl, NFL Combine, NCAA swimming and diving championship, and Indianapolis 500.

And TSF continues to raise its profile through competitions of its own. In 2025, for the third year in a row, a TSF reporter won national accolades in the Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Awards, landing on a list with Harvard, Emory, Northwestern, Arizona State and other heady company. TSF competes in both collegiate and professional contests each year and is one of the most prolific of the 30-odd student statehouse reporting programs in the U.S., producing more than 2,000 pieces of content in 2024 alone.

“The experiences FC students have at The Statehouse File allow them to ‘punch above their weight class,’ as John likes to say, and it’s amazing what they’re able to accomplish,” said Steffen. “But more than anything, I think TSF teaches young people how to take up space in a difficult world, and that can ripple out over a lifetime, no matter what the future holds.”

Recent TSF alums

After she graduated, TSF reporter Taylor Wooten was admitted into the Politico Journalism Institute’s 10-day training program in Washington D.C. She now works at Indianapolis Business Journal.

Photo provided.

Taylor Wooten, a 2022 Franklin College graduate, was a first-time TSF reporter during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic and the years following it. She said this made her experience unique because a lot of her reporting was done virtually.

She said she would often be on zoom calls held by Gov. Eric Holcomb and other news outlets from across the state for weekly COVID-19 updates. On these calls, Wooten would have to raise a virtual hand instead of fight to get a question in during a typical press gaggle.

“The experience of sitting behind a computer and clicking the raise-hand button is more nerve wracking than any interview I’ve done in my life,” Wooten said. “It’s somehow worse than a presser when you’re surrounded by people, to just be alone in your room or your office and press a button on a computer and try to make sure that what you’re gonna say to the governor sounds right.”

Even though her experience was different from that of most TSF alums, writing for TheStatehouseFile.com helped Wooten fall in love with covering government and politics.

“I came to Franklin not thinking that I specifically wanted to cover government and politics. That was never something that was on my radar, but through doing The Statehouse File, I learned that it’s something I’m really interested in,” she said.

After she graduated, Wooten was admitted into the Politico Journalism Institute’s 10-day training program in Washington D.C.

“I was really shocked that I got it because it was so prestigious,” she said. “Whenever I would describe to people who were there, that I went to Franklin College, of course they didn’t know what it was, but that was nice because … clearly people there reading applications saw my experience at The Statehouse File and found that it was really valuable.”

Wooten is now a reporter for Indianapolis Business Journal covering city politics, government, poverty, homelessness and other urban issues.

Ashlyn Myers, left, and other TSF reporters pose in front of Franklin College’s Pulliam School of Journalism.

Photo by Colleen Steffen, TheStatehouseFile.com.

Ashlyn Myers, a 2025 graduate, began her TSF experience on the very first day of her freshman year.

“John approached me over the summer and basically told me to join both The Statehouse File and The Franklin,” she said. “I went up to the Statehouse, and I was terrified because I had no journalism experience.”

Myers said she enjoyed writing and did it often but wasn’t familiar with the technical skills that came with the job.

When she arrived in the city, she struggled with parallel parking and felt out of place among the more experienced Statehouse workers.

“I remember feeling like I definitely didn’t belong there,” Myers said. “It’s a huge building, a very fancy building. Everyone was walking around in suits and dresses, and half of my outfit was thrifted and half of it was my mom’s.”

Although Myers started out as a novice, she was able to work her way up to covering a presidential campaign during the 2024 election.

Sydney Byerly, a 2024 FC alum, and Myers took a trip to Boston to follow the campaign trail of Nikki Haley, a presidential candidate during the primaries, tailing her to other stops in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

“We were standing in these tiny little conference rooms next to the AP and The New York Times and CNN and all this craziness,” Myers said. “I had to interview probably 20 people in a day about who they were voting for, which is scary. But it also taught me a lot because it was such a big story, and it was also really cool to meet somebody who could potentially become president.”

While Myers and Byerly were on that trip, they also met, dined with and visited the penthouse of  Carole Simpson, the first Black female news anchor.

“That trip just really inspired me,” Myers said. “There are so many opportunities like that that I really wouldn’t have had if I didn’t go to Franklin and also if I didn’t write for The Statehouse File.”

Myers is now a marketing and communications specialist at JCREMC, a local electric cooperative in Franklin.

The future of TSF

John Krull, publisher of TheStatehouseFile.com and director of Franklin College’s Pulliam School of Journalism.

Photo provided.

Although The Statehouse File project has turned 20, the student-powered publication is far from running out of steam.

This summer, TheStatehouseFile.com will launch its very first app—making its content accessible through the tap of a finger.

From newsprint to online content management systems, a lot has changed in two decades—editors, legislatures, even business models. TSF is now funded by a grant from Lumina and the American Journalism Project rather than subscriptions from professional outlets. But if change is the one constant in journalism, students remain the focus of TSF.

“I’m proud when I just look at the careers of these folks,” Krull said. “Almost all the students who go through the StatehouseFile end up doing something that makes a difference in their communities.”

Anna Cecil is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news site powered by Franklin College journalism students.