A journalism student at the University of Oklahoma and avid pool player, Katrina Crumbacher has joined The Purcell Register staff as its next summer intern.

She recently returned to Oklahoma after spending four months out of state, reporting for OU’s Gaylord News, a media service delivering news in partnership with dozens of newspapers and television stations across Oklahoma. In early January, she and over a dozen students went to Iowa to cover the Republican caucus.

Not long after, Crumbacher and two students jetted off to Washington, D.C., where they spent the duration of the spring semester covering national issues of interest “for the folks back home.” While there, she covered former President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court appeal to stay on Colorado’s primary ballot, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt’s endorsement switch from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to Trump just one week before Super Tuesday and more. She also attended and covered President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address. While working for The Register this summer, she will still be working with Gaylord News on a number of feature stories about Oklahomans she met while in Washington.

Crumbacher has previously interned at NonDoc Media and The Journal Record, and she has only one year left at OU before she graduates. After graduation, she hopes to stay in Oklahoma for a while but is willing to roll with the punches.

Contrary to some, Crumbacher did not always want to be a journalist. She initially wanted to be either an archeologist or a meteorologist, it did not matter which, but at six years old, she was resolute in her decision. In middle school, an aunt who works as a chemist gifted Crumbacher a microscope, which launched her interest in following in her aunt’s footsteps.

In school, Crumbacher had always been a talented writer. However, she never considered writing, whether it was fiction, non-fiction or news, as a plausible profession for her. Twice in middle school, she proceeded all the way to the Central Oklahoma Spelling Bee, the local qualifier for the Scripps National Spelling Bee held in Washington every year. Despite this, she loved math and made sure to enroll in every math class available in high school. This culminated in becoming president of the math club in her senior year. By then, it was time to apply to college, and her family and teachers recommended she pursue a STEM degree.

To them, it was no surprise that she chose to major in chemical engineering. It was not until she had completed her first year at OU that she realized that one, physics was much too hard, and two, she was not meant to be a scientist.

As far as hobbies are concerned, it is not uncommon to see Crumbacher with a book in hand and a cup of Earl Grey close by.

She collects novels and comic books with over 200 of them at home. As a big Broadway fan, she listens to musicals with relative frequency.

Her favorite one thus far is the Phantom of the Opera. Recently named president of the OU Billiards Club, she also spends a lot of time on campus, organizing pool tournaments for students.

Since this is Crumbacher’s last summer before graduation, it is also her last opportunity to intern.

While here, she is looking forward to learning all she can from The Register staff before she returns to OU in August.

One of Crumbacher’s favorite parts of being a reporter is all the new people she gets to meet along the way, so throughout the summer, she invites the Purcell community to drop by The Register and say hello.