2020

Anushree Dave is a science and technology writer and a graduate student at New York University’s Science, Health, and Environmental Reporting program. Before moving to New York City, she was an academic researcher and lecturer in Canada and obtained a master’s in bioethics from McGill University where her thesis focused on publication ethics. In the last few years, she has traveled across five continents to write about global health in low- to middle-income countries, and ethics of humanitarian technology. She hopes to bring more diverse voices to storytelling over the course of her career.

Kristen Hwang is a multimedia journalist and graduate student at UC Berkeley pursuing dual master’s degrees in journalism and public health. Her reporting weaves together narrative storytelling and data journalism to cover issues like lead paint toxicity among children, long-term health effects among Camp Fire survivors, and Pacific Islander maternal health disparities. She has won many awards including an Edward R. Murrow for producing and directing an online documentary about prison reform in California and has twice been named the top education reporter by the California Newspaper Publishers Association. Her work has been published in the New York Times as part of the UC Berkeley-NYT Covid-19 project, CalMatters, KCRB (PBS), USA Today, the Desert Sun, the Arizona Republic and more.

Shelia Lai is a Master of Science student at Columbia Journalism School. She is a translation major who found her love for journalism through her Sophomore year media internship, working for a local paper in Hong Kong. After her internship, she proceeded to become a part-time reporter for 1.5 years covering breaking news as she finishes her Bachelor of Arts degree in HKU. In reporting natural disasters, fatal accidents and the anti-extradition law protests on the frontlines, the stories showed her value in guarding the line of truth from intentional distortion. She also discovered a new love for investigative reporting, finding a fascination in uncovering fact from extensive and careful research. To fully utilize her Hong Kong experience in reporting New York, she seeks opportunities tirelessly to improve her journalistic skills — as a new immigrant with an insight on human rights and censorship.

Alyssa Lukpat is a data journalism graduate student at Columbia University. She is a metro intern at the Raleigh News & Observer and was a metro correspondent and web producer at the Boston Globe. She is a former student board representative for the AAJA New England chapter. She has a degree in journalism from Northeastern University. Alyssa wants to be a data journalist and tell the stories of vulnerable populations.

Tiffany Wong is a senior at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, where she studies journalism and East Asian languages and cultures. Originally from the Bay Area, she is currently a news assistant on the New York Times’ coronavirus tracking project. Previously, she was a reporting intern on the COVID-19 team at the Los Angeles Times, and has also written for the longest-running Asian American entertainment print magazine, Character Media (formerly Kore Asian Media), and U.S.-China Today. In her free time, she enjoys making covers of Taylor Swift songs and learning new languages on Duolingo. After graduating, she hopes to attend grad school in Taiwan before becoming a foreign correspondent based in Asia.  You can follow her work @tiffvevo on Twitter.

2019

Alyson Stamos

Manyu Jiang

Nisa Khan

Priyanka Vora

Yeji Lee

2018

Michelle Hanks is a student studying photojournalism and sociology at Western Kentucky University. She discovered her passion for photojournalism as a senior in high school when she flipped through a Best of Photojournalism book from the 1980s and was captivated by photos that captured individuals and their emotions in a way not found in other photography. Since starting the photojournalism program at WKU, Michelle has learned how journalism can promote empathy and understanding for people whose stories are under-told and has also realized how the profession requires photographers to use their heart before their lens when telling someone’s story. Michelle currently works as a summer intern at Louisville Public Media where she makes photos and videos for the web. After graduating, she hopes to make photo stories and short documentaries for a newspaper. Her passion currently lies in producing and telling in-depth, narrative-driven stories.

Thomas Oide is a senior at the University of Missouri at Columbia where he is majoring in data journalism and minoring in computer science and information technology. He currently works as an intern at The Boston Globe and previously interned at The Sacramento Bee the two previous summers. The scholarship will help him offset undergraduate education costs so that he can pursue a master’s degree in the future. His goal is to eventually work as a data reporter or a news developer.

Darleen Principe is a multimedia journalist and mass communications graduate student at California State University, Northridge. She is a former news reporter and editor for the Acorn Newspapers, a family of five community weeklies headquartered in Agoura Hills, CA. She has won awards for breaking news, education reporting and best writing through the California Newspaper Publishers Association. Her work has also appeared in the Huffington Post, Filipinas Magazine and Taste.Company. Darleen holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from California State University, Northridge and a master’s degree in visual culture from the University of Westminster in London, England. Her current master’s research focuses on the Filipino diaspora and ethnic media in Los Angeles. She has a Pomeranian named Penny Lane and likes to spend her free time baking artisan sourdough bread.

Nicole Tam currently University of Hawaii at Manoa, studying journalism, Chinese and geography while serving as the editor-in-chief of the campus student newspaper, Ka Leo. She also works part-time as a digital media producer at the local ABC-affiliate KITV and as a freelance magazine writer. Nicole hopes to become a broadcast journalist after she graduates. As a member of AAJA for the past two years and serving as a co-director for the AAJA Student Broadcast Journalists group, she hopes to help other students to practice ethical journalism.

Nani Sahra Walker is a multimedia journalist, educator and graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley. Her work includes projects for The Atlantic, BBC, Guardian, The San Francisco Chronicle and AJ+. She has worked on productions that won prestigious awards, including the Student Academy Award, MTV Music Video Award and commercial projects placed among the ten most highly valued in Ads of the World. She is currently leading an augmented reality (AR) team at UC Berkeley, developing AR/VR prototypes in partnership with the Center for Augmented Cognition and The Fung Institute.