Meet the 2023 OPC Foundation
Scholar Award Winners
Youcef Bounab
Craig Newmark School of Journalism at CUNY
HARPER’S MAGAZINE SCHOLARSHIP in memory of I.F. STONE
Endowed by John R. MacArthur and the Pierre F. Simon Charitable Trust
A graduate of the University of Algiers and a native Algerian, Youcef rather unexpectedly found himself in New York City five years ago intent on a career in journalism. In his photo essay on Masjid Tajul Huda, a mostly West African mosque in the Bronx, Youcef details the impact of mosque life on recent African arrivals and how that helps them navigate the challenges of immigration. Besides English and French, Youcef speaks Darija and Classical Arabic. He has an OPC Foundation fellowship with the Associated Press.
Andrew Califf
New York University
STAN SWINTON FELLOWSHIP
Endowed by the Swinton Family
A double journalism/anthropology major, Andrew developed a keen interest in the intersection of migration, climate change, trade, and nomadism while camping out with Bedouins and refugees throughout the Middle East – and covering those stories for Israel’s Haavertz. In his essay, he wrote about colonial looting of ancient funerary structures known as chullpas that are scattered across the Chincha Valley of Peru. The well-traveled college senior speaks intermediate Mandarin.
Chris Chang
University of California-Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism
SEYMOUR AND AUDREY TOPPING SCHOLARSHIP
Endowed by the Topping and Cone families and friends
While covering the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong, Chris learned how video journalism can deliver thought-provoking images that transcend language and cultural barriers. A graduate of National Taipei University in Taiwan, he wrote about involution in China and the potential for social unrest, as Chinese students compete incessantly throughout their schooling for little chance of rewarding careers. He is fluent in English and Mandarin and speaks advanced French. He has a summer internship with the Washington Post.
Nuha Dolby
University of Wisconsin-Madison
ROY ROWAN SCHOLARSHIP
Endowed by family, friends and admirers
In 2021, Nuha traveled to Bangladesh to report on how the problems of the country’s cash-based healthcare system were exposed during the Covid-19 pandemic. Ethnically Bangladesh and fluent in Bangala, she intends to return there to cover how the people and culture are surviving in one of the most climate-threatened countries in the world. A college senior, and a double major in English and math, Nuha has an OPC Foundation fellowship with the Wall Street Journal.
Viola Flowers
Stony Brook University
NATHAN S. BIENSTOCK MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP
Endowed by the Richard Leibner and Carole Cooper Family Foundation
While only a college sophomore, Viola showed her grasp of journalism, her commitment to research and reporting, and her ability to recognize the subtle details which lie at the heart of every good story. In her essay, she wrote about the struggles of Ukrainian refugees on her campus trying to navigate the trauma of loss and the vagaries of the U.S. immigration system. A journalism major, she has an internship with the NBC Nightly News.
Zane Irwin
Swarthmore College
FLORA LEWIS/JACQUELINE ALBERT-SIMON SCHOLARSHIP
Endowed by the Pierre F. Simon Charitable Trust
As a Pulitzer Center reporting fellow last summer, Zane extended his time in Cameroon to cover how the country’s violent conflict runs on parallel tracks, on the battlefield and on social media. In both video and print, Zane told the story of journalist Mimi Mefo Takambou who is now based in Europe and still covering what is called Cameroon’s Anglophone crisis. A senior majoring in political science and French, Zane also does podcasts for War News Radio. He has an OPC Foundation fellowship with the Associated Press.
Simon Levien
Harvard University
EMANUEL R. FREEDMAN SCHOLARSHIP
Endowed by family
While only a college junior, Simon has already experienced breaking an international story. In his essay, he wrote about the uproar resulting from an eight-part series he and a colleague did for the Harvard Crimson about a Harvard professor’s claim that Korean women kidnaped by Japanese military during WWII were not “comfort women” but contracted sex workers. Currently an intern with the Boston Globe, he hopes to continue research on the Philippine sex trafficking industry that serves Western tourists in Manila. Simon will intern with the Wall Street Journal in its D.C. bureau this summer.
Madeleine Long
University of Richmond
IRENE CORBALLY KUHN SCHOLARSHIP
Endowed by the Scripps Howard Foundation
In her essay, Madeleine, a college junior, wrote about a project she did for her Pulitzer Center Campus Consortium Reporting Fellowship, about the role of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Ukrainian culture, national identity and the war. In November she traveled to Lviv in western Ukraine to interview a wide range of people, ranging from military chaplains to internally displaced persons who fled eastern Ukraine. She is a reporter for her campus newspaper, The Collegian.
Kaela Malig
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
SALLY JACOBSEN FELLOWSHIP
Endowed by family and friends
An award-winning multimedia journalist in her native Philippines, Kaela spent several years as a digital video specialist and news producer for GMA Network, the country’s leading broadcast news organization, where she covered a wide spectrum of social and political stories from child sex abuse to domestic violence. She also worked for CNN and the Washington Post. In her essay, Kaela wrote about the orphaned children of the Philippine drug war. A graduate of Ateneo de Manila University, she speaks Filipino, Mandarin and Hokkien.
Devin Seán Martin
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
FRITZ BEEBE FELLOWSHIP
Endowed by Anne and Larry Martz
Born into a tradition of Irish storytellers, Devin’s focus is now business journalism. Having spent the last three years covering business in Ireland and in Brussels, he intends to keep his focus on European economics and finance. In his essay, he wrote about Kerrygold butter, a leading Irish export, and its struggles to cope with escalating pandemic-related shipping container prices and now fall-out from the war in Ukraine. He is a graduate of Dublin City University and a competitive Frisbee player. Devin has an OPC Foundation fellowship with the Reuters bureau in London.
Rachel Nostrant
New York University
EDITH LEDERER SCHOLARSHIP
Endowed by Edith Lederer and friends
Rachel traveled to Odessa last spring to report on an American woman helping Ukrainian refugees escape war zones in eastern Ukraine for New York Magazine. Rachel would like to return to Ukraine and eventually the Middle East where she once served as a Middle Eastern Cryptologic Linguist with the U.S. Marine Corps in Iraq and Syria. A graduate of Penn State, she speaks Levantine Arabic, modern standard Arabic and some French. Rachel has an OPC Foundation fellowship with the Associated Press.
Lucy Papachristou
Craig Newmark School of Journalism at CUNY
JERRY FLINT FELLOWSHIP FOR INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS REPORTING
Endowed by family and friends
Having already spent three years reporting outside the U.S., including an internship with the Wall Street Journal in Brussels, Lucy is eager to return to the post-Soviet region, specifically Georgia, to complete a reporting project on the influence of politics on the country’s once promising cryptocurrency industry, the subject of her essay. Fluent in Russian and a graduate of Carleton College, Lucy currently has an internship on the tech desk with Bloomberg. She has an OPC Foundation fellowship with Reuters.
Sarah Raza
Stanford University
RICK DAVIS-DEB AMOS SCHOLARSHIP
Endowed by Deb Amos and friends
As an intern for the Detroit Free Press, Sarah wrote about Sommieh Flower, a Michigan woman who moved with her Pakistani husband to Chatha Bakhtawar, a small town just outside Islamabad, and started a school for impoverished children. A college senior, Sarah has been a beat reporter and desk editor for The Stanford Daily and plans on earning a master’s degree in journalism post-graduation. She speaks some Urdu and French.
Kailyn Rhone
New York University
REUTERS FELLOWSHIP
Sponsored by Reuters
In a story she first covered for the Texas Tribune, Kailyn described the perils of an Afghan refugee and former translator for the U.S. military, his fraught exit from Kabul and his resettlement in Fort Worth where he runs an Afghan food market. A graduate of Florida A& M University, Kailyn also had reporting stints at Vox Media, ProPublica, and the Tampa Bay Times. She is a Reuters Journalism Fellow at NYU and will intern with Reuters this summer. She currently has an internship with the Wall Street Journal.
Daniel Shailer
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
WALTER & BETSY CRONKITE SCHOLARSHIP
Funded by Mercedes-Benz and Supported by CBS News
Daniel intends to take his specialty in climate justice and water quality, plus training in audio and other multimedia skills, and return to Latin America where climate impact issues are among the most pressing in the world. In his essay, he wrote about how New York’s failing sewage infrastructure was polluting the Saw Mill River. A graduate of University of Cambridge, he was born In Hong Kong and once swam the English Channel. He speaks Mandarin and conversational Spanish. He has an OPC Foundation fellowship with the Associated Press bureau in Mexico City.
Francis Tang
Syracuse University
DAVID R. SCHWEISBERG MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP
Sponsored by the Schweisberg Family
A native of China and a college senior, Francis is proficient in English, Japanese and Mandarin. One of his 130 bylined stories that have appeared in his college newspaper, The Daily Orange, was about how China’s Hong Kong national security law has raised concerns about speech and academic freedom among Syracuse University’s international student community, the subject of his essay. He intends to focus his career on East Asia and U.S.-Japan relations.
Rayna Song
Northwestern University
S&P GLOBAL AWARD FOR ECONOMIC AND BUSINESS REPORTING
Endowed by S&P Global
At the start of the pandemic, Rayna returned home to Beijing and wrote a feature article for the Washington Post about how online classes had widened the gap between the wealthier and less privileged students in China. A college senior, she was raised bi-lingual in Mandarin and English, and also speaks French and some Spanish. She has interned with USA Today and with LeMonde in Beijing and is editor-in-chief of the Northwestern Business Review.
Yucheng Tang
New York University
RICHARD PYLE SCHOLARSHIP
Endowed by family and friends
Yucheng wrote about the downsides of his native China’s zero Covid policy, its impact on individuals and on the economy. A graduate of Fudan University’s School of Journalism and a Schwarzman Scholar at Tsinghua University, he has worked at several publications in China, including the New York Times, as an investigative journalist at Southern Weekend and as a feature writer at Portrait Magazine. Yucheng has an OPC Foundation fellowship with the Associated Press in Bangkok.