Idaho Education News has hired Colby Kistner to report on education news this summer.

Kistner is all the way from Florida, a.k.a. the Sunshine State. He is a rising senior at the University of Florida and is pursuing a degree in sports journalism.

The Hollywood, Fla., native started his journalism career in spring of 2025 at WRUF, a radio and digital print station covering Gators sports. There, he reported on various sports at two local high schools.

Last summer, he decided to partake in a remote internship for Nancy Solari, the founder of Living Full Out. Solari is a legally blind life coach based in Huntington Beach, Calif., who runs a weekly podcast featuring all sorts of guests. Kistner wrote show notes, promoted podcast guests and wrote some coaching tidbits.

Fast forward to last fall, he continued working for WRUF and immersed himself in UF’s Innovation News Center. This time, he created brief radio content and freelanced for digital print.

Even with the premier experience of WRUF and Living Full Out, Kistner took it one step further to start off the new year. A job with the largest-student run newspaper in the country, The Independent Florida Alligator. Not knowing anything about golf, he spent a quarter of his winter break reading up on previous golf stories and learning about the sport.

Fast forward to today, Kistner is still working for The Alligator and has many feature stories and other sports stories under his belt.

His dad is a traffic ticket lawyer, covering the majority of Florida’s counties. Kistner’s mom is also a UF alum and a physical therapist for children ages 0-3.

His stepmother Carla is from Peru and now works for Estee Lauder at the Pembroke Lakes Mall in Pembroke Pines, Fla.

Despite being from the opposite end of the country, Kistner has ties to the Mountain West. His stepfather Jae was born and raised in Denver, and his family originated from Montana and Wyoming.

The Broward County native will cover a variety of topics to keep readers informed and educated, while being outside of his breeding grounds of the southernmost state.

Idaho Education News is a nonprofit, digital news organization. EdNews is a public awareness service where parents, patrons, educators and lawmakers can find accurate, critical information on issues that affect Idaho’s children and their futures.

You can follow Kistner on Instagram @colbykistner64 or send him tips at colby@idahoednews.org.