Carnegie Knight’s News21 Investigative Fellowship

In 2021, I was provided with the extraordinary opportunity to participate in the Carnegie Knight News21 Investigative Fellowship at the Walter Cronkite Journalism School at Arizona State University. Beginning with an online course in Jan. 2021, myself and 30 other journalism students from across the country began investigating the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on underrepresented communities. Heading to Phoenix in May 2021, we worked around the clock to find stories of immigrants, the disabled, people of color and many more communities across the country that have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic and also underrepresented in reporting. I had the opportunity to be the lead writer on a project about immigrants and refugees. I travelled to farms and urban kitchens in Buffalo, New York, one of the country’s massive refugee hubs. I was on assignment in grape farms and sat around kitchen tables of immigrants in rural Delano, California. We found that pandemic-related messaging could have been translated better for non-English speakers, and that culture and religion carry different ideas about the disease. Overall, these communities were largely forgotten during the pandemic. Personally, this experience was the best thing I’ve ever done. Being surrounded by other determined and passionate young journalists was an all-immersive and extremely rewarding experience. I was nominated by my close mentor at CU Boulder, Angie Chuang, and her nomination was supported by the entire journalism faculty, which meant so much to have support back home. Click the links below to check out the pieces I created.