Mar 27, 2026 Joselyn Esquivel Undergraduate Intern, Spring 2026

Giving Voice to Utah’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons

1.Briefly describe your project and the challenges, lessons learned, and obstacles overcome in the execution of it. What were the professional, academic, and personal motivations underlying your project?

The project Giving Voice to Utah’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons is a collaborative effort between the University of Utah’s Department of Communication, the Utah Investigative Journalism Project, and the Utah Murdered and Missing Indigenous Relatives Task Force. Currently, Utah has no single comprehensive database that tracks Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons (MMIP). This project seeks to address that gap by advocating for and raising awareness about MMIP Utahns through community‑driven narrative collection and the creation of a digital database.

During my time with Digital Matters, I worked closely with Eric Peterson and the Utah Investigative Journalism Project. My work included annotating transcripts from the Murdered and Missing Indigenous Relatives Task Force, reviewing cold cases, filing GRAMA requests for additional case information, and gathering contact information for victims’ relatives. Throughout my internship, I encountered several challenges such as learning the ropes of research, adapting to new technologies, and navigating incomplete or difficult‑to‑access case information. At times, it was difficult to see how many cases remained open without families receiving justice for their family members.

2.How did the Digital Matters internship dovetail with your academic pursuits? What interested you in applying for this grant?

My Digital Matters internship helped bridge the gap between what I was learning in the classroom and what I was researching. As a Strategic Communications major and an Ethnic Studies minor, I’m often thinking about how stories are told, whose voices are represented, and how platforms shape our understanding of social issues. Through this internship, I was able to apply my academic interests directly to a project that connected digital media with an issue that matters to me. It made my coursework feel more tangible and showed me how research can become meaningful, community‑focused work instead of a daunting task.

3.What insights have you gained in regard to your specific field as a result of your project and grant experience?

Through my project and the Digital Matters grant experience, I’ve gained a much deeper understanding of how communication, history, and digital media intersect in my field. I’ve gotten to explore different moments in history and see how their impacts continue to shape communities today. This project showed me how essential technology can be in amplifying voices that are often overlooked. I learned new ways in which digital tools can be used to reach and engage with people from affected communities, especially those who come from minoritized communities.

4.What would you tell potential intern applicants to help them shape their own digital scholarship project?

A piece of advice I would give to potential applicants is to go for it! You don’t need to be the most tech‑savvy or the most experienced person to get started. When I began my internship,

there were so many research terms, tools, and procedures I had never encountered before. But I soon learned that that’s what research is about, learning things as you go!

I am thankful for the staff on my project and the team within Digital Matters who supported me, helping me build skills in different areas I didn’t know I’d need. It was for sure a learning process, but an interesting one!