POULSBO — Michelle Beahm loves finding stories, covering events, interviewing people, and letting others know what’s going on.

And she’s brought that zest for community newspaper journalism to the North Kitsap Herald.

Beahm, 22, joined the Herald staff on March 9. She is reporting on education, outdoors and north end. She succeeds Kipp Robertson, who now works for Bonneville Seattle.

“Being a community reporter is a great job,” Beahm said. “Finding a reporting job in Kitsap County was amazing for me because I grew up here and my family lives here. We’re really close, so when I was given the chance to move back home, I took it in a heartbeat. Now I not only have a job I love, but I get to be a part of my home community.”

Beahm graduated from South Kitsap High School and Olympic College through the Running Start program, studied international relations for one year at University of Plymouth in Plymouth, U.K., and graduated from The University of Montana with a bachelor’s degree in journalism.

She interned at the Bremerton Patriot and Central Kitsap Reporter in summer 2013, then joined Sound Publishing’s Whidbey News-Times and Whidbey Examiner as a reporter covering schools, parks and recreation, and the fire district.

In her spare time, she enjoys reading, playing video games, and exploring Kitsap’s great outdoors. She volunteers at Adventure of Faith Presbyterian Church.

“Michelle is enthusiastic about her work and her mission as a journalist,” Editor Richard Walker said. “She started her career with the Herald by producing stories that bumped stories by me and Richard Oxley off of the front page. I expect our readers will benefit from her enthusiasm and her work ethic for a long, long time.”