Meet the 2024 OPC Foundation
Scholar Award Winners
Simar Bajaj
Harvard University
HARPER’S MAGAZINE SCHOLARSHIP in memory of I.F. STONE
Endowed by John R. MacArthur and the Pierre F. Simon Charitable Trust
Experienced in peer-review medical journals, Simar pivoted to global health journalism to reach a wider audience on such topics as stigma and tobacco policy. Before entering the University of Oxford this fall as a Marshall Scholar, he intends to investigate countries with innovative tobacco policies, such as those launched by New Zealand and the impact on the Maori, the subject of his essay. A committed freelancer and podcast host, his work has appeared in the Washington Post, the Guardian, NPR and The Atlantic, among others.
Mark Banchereau
Craig Newmark School of Journalism at CUNY
RICHARD PYLE SCHOLARSHIP
Endowed by Family and Friends
Mark wants to make the complex Senegalese political situation as understandable to a global audience as it was to him, living among and reporting on the Senegalese diaspora in Harlem. A French-German citizen who speaks both languages fluently, he is a graduate of McGill University and has worked as a reporter in Jamaica, Montreal, Geneva and New York City. He is especially interested in covering Russian and French influence in the “Global South.”
Catherine Cartier
New York University
REUTERS FELLOWSHIP
Sponsored by Reuters
Catherine’s areas of expertise are financial systems that profit from conflict and their impact on social order. In her essay, Catherine wrote about the uncertain future of Afghan Central Bank funds frozen in a Swiss bank. Fluent in several Arabic dialects and near that in Persian and French, she has reported from Morocco, Tunisia and Kenya. She has an OPC Foundation fellowship with Reuters in Dubai. She is a former Pulitzer Center fellow, Fulbright grantee and a graduate of Davidson College.
Paige Cromley
Princeton University
RICK DAVIS-DEB AMOS SCHOLARSHIP
Endowed by Deb Amos and friends
Even as an astrophysics major, Paige has always been drawn to journalism. In her essay, she wrote about a controversial and yet culturally significant tradition known as the Grindarap whale hunt on the Faroe Islands. She’s deeply interested in how indigenous communities are adapting to rapid social and environmental change. Fluent in French and conversational Spanish, she spent a summer in South America, backpacking across Peru and creating a 25-episode podcast about a world class observatory in northern Chile.
Noelle Harff
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
WALTER & BETSY CRONKITE SCHOLARSHIP
Funded by Mercedes-Benz and Supported by CBS News
Noelle is headed to Buenos Aires this spring to study abroad and focus on reporting the intricacies of the Argentine economy. In her essay, she wrote about a mostly volunteer campaign to map a trail through the Darién Gap and increase the potential for tourism business in that part of Panama. A college junior interested in business journalism, she writes a column on economics for the Daily Tar Heel.
Sam Harshbarger
Princeton University
ROY ROWAN SCHOLARSHIP
Endowed by Family, Friends and Admirers
When Covid-19 moved his freshman year classes online, Sam made the unexpected move to Istanbul and learned Turkish while engaging in support efforts for Syrian refugees. Also fluent in Spanish and proficient in Azerbaijani and Russian, he has traveled to and done research in the Balkans, the Caucasus, Central Asia, Iraq and the Persian Gulf. After his time as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford is done, he plans to relocate to Istanbul and pursue journalism full time.
Hana Kiros
University of Oxford
S&P GLOBAL AWARD FOR ECONOMIC AND BUSINESS REPORTING
Endowed by S&P Global
For her essay, Hana submitted an editorial she wrote for the Washington Post, breaking the news that a cease-fire in Tigray was just another way Ethiopia was weaponizing starvation in the century’s deadliest conflict. Fluent in two Ethiopian languages, she is finishing her master’s degree at Oxford in archaeology. A graduate of Harvard, she was once the editorial chair of the Harvard Crimson. She has an OPC Foundation fellowship with the Wall Street Journal in London.
Jade Lozada
Harvard University
EDITH LEDERER SCHOLARSHIP
Endowed by Edith Lederer and Friends
Before the start of her junior year, Jade did a summer reporting internship with Civil Georgia in Tbilisi, where she met the members of a Russian garage rock band, the topic of her essay. For a story that appeared in the Moscow Times, she wrote about them and other conflicts between native Georgians and anti-war Russian migrants. Fluent in Spanish with advanced Russian skills, she is a reporter for the Harvard Crimson. She has lived in Prague and Warsaw and intends to cover Eastern Europe and Russia.
Trisha Mukherjee
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
STAN SWINTON SCHOLARHIP
Endowed by the Swinton Family
When Covid limited her travel options, Trisha stayed home and instead created and produced a narrative podcast exploring critical questions on global activism. For her essay, she submitted an episode on Manipuri women’s resistance to the Indian Army’s indiscriminate violence. At iHeart Media, she supervised a slate of 10 podcasts. Fluent in Spanish, Bengali and some Hindi, she received her undergraduate degree from Columbia and wants to prioritize solutions journalism from underreported communities.
Coral Murphy Marcos
University of California-Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism
JERRY FLINT FELLOWSHIP FOR INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS REPORTING
Endowed by Family and Friends
Coral’s experience as a reporting fellow covering the stock market for the New York Times, a tech reporter for USA Today and a freelancer for the Guardian has strengthened her commitment to business journalism. She is fascinated by the stories at the intersection of business and climate. In her essay, she wrote how extreme weather in Brazil has contributed to the sharp rise in the price of coffee beans. Also fluent in Spanish and some French, she is a journalism graduate of the University of Puerto Rico.
Sonia A. Rao
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
EMANUEL R. FREEDMAN SCHOLARHIP
Endowed by Family
As an intern at the non-profit news organization GroundUp in Cape Town, Sonia had a crash course on South Africa’s protest culture and apartheid’s enduring legacy. She also had internships at the Dallas Morning News, Virginian-Pilot and Charlotte Observer and was an editor at the Daily Tarheel. In her essay, she wrote about a Ukrainian family’s perilous journey from Kyiv to Charlotte. After an internship with the Tampa Bay Times, she heads to Nairobi where she has an OPC Foundation fellowship with the Reuters bureau.
Laura Robertson
Princeton University
SALLY JACOBSEN FELLOWSHIP
Endowed by Family and Friends
Now fluent in Farsi and able to converse in the other Persian dialects of Tajik and Dari, Laura intends to return to Tajikistan, a country caught between its Soviet past, its shared language with Iran and its dependence on China for economic development – as well as its 800-mile shared border with Afghanistan. In her essay, she wrote about protests in Berlin against the Islamic Republic. Trained in photography and documentary filmmaking, she is also an editor at the Daily Princetonian.
Kate Selig
Stanford University
IRENE CORBALLY KUHN SCHOLARSHIP
Endowed by the Scripps Howard Foundation
During her Boston Globe internship, Kate reported a Sunday front page story on how vulnerable residents in Chinatown were enduring the city’s first extreme heat wave, the subject of her essay. Intent on a career as an international climate correspondent, her chief interests lie at the intersection of climate impacts, policy and accountability. A former editor in chief of The Stanford Daily, she also had internships with the Washington Post, Mercury News and the San Francisco Chronicle and has experience reporting in Spanish.
Audrey Thibert
University of Wisconsin-Madison
DAVID R. SCHWEISBERG MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP
Sponsored by the Schweisberg Family
As a Pulitzer Center fellow, Audrey traveled to Tunisia to report on the state of sub-Saharan migration. There she met Gift, a pregnant Nigerian migrant with an uncertain future, the subject of her essay. Intent on returning to the Middle East/North Africa, she is studying Arabic and the polylithic culture of the region. The managing editor of the Daily Badger, she is the first recipient of the Anthony Shadid Memorial Scholarship Fund for International Reporting.
Brunella Tipismana
Yale University
SEYMOUR AND AUDREY TOPPING SCHOLARSHIP
Endowed by the Topping and Cone Families and Friends
On a trip back home to see her family in Lima, Brunella witnessed some of Peru’s worst violent social conflict in 20 years. Instead of observing, she started reporting. In her essay, she wrote how news of the protests and the government’s often brutal response seldom made the daily news media which had become increasingly consolidated in recent years. Brunella is bilingual (English and Spanish) and speaks some Russian and French. She is an editor at the Yale Daily News.
Dani Morena Trettin
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
FLORA LEWIS/JACQUELINE ALBERT-SIMON SCHOLARSHIP
Endowed by the Pierre F. Simon Charitable Trust
A native of the Canary Islands, Dani is committed to reporting on Indigeneity as he has done so far in Kenya, Greenland and Central America. In his essay he wrote about his time with the Emberá people in Panama who are selling their culture to support regional tourism and their livelihoods. A graduate of Leiden University College in the Netherlands, he is fluent in Spanish and Swedish and speaks advanced French, Italian and German, among others. He has an OPC Foundation fellowship with Reuters in São Paulo.
Hannah-Kathryn Walles
Craig Newmark School of Journalism at CUNY
NATHAN S. BIENSTOCK MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP
Endowed by the Richard Liebner and Carole Cooper Family Foundation
During the three years she spent in Kenya, Hannah-Kathryn discovered the cross-cultural power of photojournalism. Already aware of the African diaspora in France, she traveled to Paris to photograph the clothing ateliers in the African enclave of the city’s 18th arrondissement, the subject of her essay. She also wrote about Afghan women embroiderers who lost their positions when the Taliban returned to power. A graduate of the University of Arkansas, she intends to return to Africa and document similar stories.
Michael Wakin
University of Oxford
FRITZ BEEBE FELLOWSHIP
Endowed by Anne and Larry Martz
Michael was drawn to journalism when he returned to Cape Town during a tumultuous time in its history, very unlike his youth when he grew up in the newly post-apartheid South Africa as the son of two American foreign correspondents. An economics major at Kenyon College, he intends to focus his journalism on the darker side of the hyper-globalized, financialized world economy. In his essay, he wrote about Riad Salameh, a Lebanese central bank governor who was largely responsible for Lebanon’s economic crisis.