Antonio Castaneda
ALEXANDER KENDRICK MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP
London School of Economics and Political Science

Now pursuing a graduate degree in public policy, Antonio – a Columbia University grad – finds himself irresistibly drawn to the Middle East. As a correspondent for the Associated Press in Iraq, he witnessed “humanity’s worst side manifest itself daily on neighborhood streets.” His essay tells the story of “Mr. Wilson” and how his family’s eventual departure from its home in downtown Ramadi symbolized the death of this once busy hub.


Erica Schlaikjer
DAVID R. SCHWEISBERG MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP
Northwestern University

The daughter of an America diplomat raised in various posts around the globe, Erica intends to return to Taiwan, a “prime location to learn about the world’s globalizing forces.” She wrote about the impact of the Internet on the Chinese youth culture, viewed from her own seat in an Internet cafe in Shanghai. Expecting political or subversive activities, she found most Internet use was not unlike the day-to-day habits of her American friends.


Andrew Greenberg
REUTERS SCHOLARSHIP
New York University

While working for an environmental non-profit magazine in Beijing, Andrew stumbled across ways Chinese hackers and Internet users battle Chinese government sensors in an endless tit-for-tat fight for Internet freedom. The Haverford graduate wrote about the quandary of impartially covering an issue so closely linked to the fate of reporters in an increasingly digital world. A Mandarin speaker, he is working on a master’s degree in business and economic reporting at NYU Graduate School of Journalism.


Elizabeth Dickinson
HARPER’S MAGAZINE SCHOLARSHIP in memory of I.F.Stone
Yale University

Elizabeth told the story of the nearly 25,000 Dakar flood victims forced to live in government camps while the struggling democracy in Senegal failed to deliver on its promise to rebuild their neighborhoods. The Yale senior focused on one 65-year-old woman weary after a year of sharing a one-room tent with 10 children. Elizabeth speaks French, Krio and Yoruba and intends to return to West Africa to “do justice to the people whose lives underlie every story.”


Katie Paul
IRENE CORBALLY KUHN SCHOLARSHIP
Vassar College

Katie wrote about the political dynamism of Morocco. Witnessing frequent protests and demonstrations on the streets of Rabat, the Vassar senior’s own experiences challenge the American notion that Muslim culture is repressive. Proficient in Arabic, French and Spanish, Katie is the first recipient of the Reuters/OPC Foundation internship and will spend a month this summer at the Reuters bureau in Sao Paulo or Mexico City.


Jeremy Gantz
H.L. STEVENSON SCHOLARSHIP
Northwestern University

A graduate of Carleton College and a former Fulbright scholar, Jeremy is fascinated by the parliamentary democracies and deeply undemocratic traditions of South Asia. He wrote about India’s huge, mostly rural army of child laborers, as seen through the eyes of two young boys whose greatest hope was to attend school. Jeremy is the first recipient of the Cambodia Daily/OPC Foundation internship and will travel to Phnom Penh this summer.


Ben Hubbard
STAN SWINTON SCHOLARSHIP
University of California, Berkeley

A Northwestern graduate, Ben spent two years studying Arabic in Cairo. He wrote about Egypt’s repressive but US-endorsed regime of Mubarak, suggesting Washington may one day have to choose between a friendly dictator or an anti-American democracy. Now a graduate student in journalism at Berkeley, Ben is this year’s recipient of the AP/OPC Foundation internship. He will spend a month this summer in AP’s Jerusalem bureau.


Emily Rotberg
EMANUEL R. FREEDMAN SCHOLARSHIP
Duke University

In her essay, Emily wrote about the church service that Reuters organized to commemorate its 2005 departure from Fleet Street in London, marking the end of that street’s journalistic legacy. Proficient in Hebrew, Arabic and Spanish, the Duke University senior believes she has a talent for “finding the right time to be in the wrong place.” She intends to pursue a master’s degree in international journalism.


Sareena Dalla
THEO WILSON SCHOLARSHIP
Harvard University Kennedy School of Government

After several years as a producer at CNN, Sareena began work on a master’s degree in public policy to allow her to “better analyze and report on the complex government decisions that affect so many lives.” Conversant in Thai, the University of Virginia graduate intends to return to Thailand, to “serve as a voice for those that lack one” by understanding history through the eyes of the people affected.


Aaron Clark
ROY ROWAN SCHOLARSHIP
Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs

Aaron is fascinated with South Asia, specifically for the time being, with Myanmar, where the ruling junta maintains its power through “a brutal mix of fear, incompetence and poverty.” The New York University graduate intends to return to Myanmar to writes stories about the spread of underground humor and the effectiveness of external efforts to penetrate the country’s censorship barriers.


Ed Ou
DAN ELDON SCHOLARSHIP
University of Southern California

Fluent in Mandarin and proficient in Arabic, Spanish and French, Ed considers himself primarily a photojournalist, believing that telling stories through photographs is “not only a technical craft to be honed, but an intellectual endeavor that never ends.” The USC undergraduate wrote about being part of the convoy of journalists covering the deaths of 29 civilians killed by Israeli bombs in the southern Lebanese village of Qana.


Samantha Friedman
FLORA LEWIS MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP
University of Missouri School of Journalism

Chile, Samantha wrote, is a “politically polarized country that rarely addresses its troubled past.” In her essay, the Georgetown graduate described a park that had once been a torture camp and two citizens’ opposite perspectives on the regime of General Augusto Pinochet. She would like to use her language skills – Spanish, Portuguese and French – and knowledge of Latin American history to improve US coverage of Latino populations.