Introducing the 2026 Campus Consortium Reporting Fellows

Image

The Pulitzer Center is excited to announce our 2026 cohort of 32 Reporting Fellows. Their projects address some of the most critical and underreported stories in today’s world, including maternal health, climate migration, and mental well-being. 

Every year, the Pulitzer Center awards fellowships to students attending our Campus Consortium partners, including liberal arts colleges, community colleges, state universities, historically Black colleges and universities, and graduate schools of journalism and public health in the U.S. and Qatar.

Each Fellow is paired with a journalist adviser—a Pulitzer Center grantee with special expertise in the Fellow's topic or reporting destination. Pulitzer Center editors also provide mentoring in reporting, writing, and multimedia. 

"This year's Reporting Fellows are investigating issues ranging from climate resilience to peace and conflict," said Shruti Desai, Director of University Programs. "Along the way, they are demonstrating how journalism can deepen understanding and create opportunities for dialogue across differences."

Learn more about our 2026 Reporting Fellows below:

Climate and Environment

MacKenzie Atkins, from Forsyth Technical Community College, will assess salon waste management in Accra, Ghana, to determine the environmental impacts of carcinogenic hair products on the local community.

Kristin Borchers, from Southern Illinois University Carbondale, will investigate outdated water system infrastructure in Mounds, Illinois, a historically Black township, and the resulting effects on community mental health.

MC Grimes, from Swarthmore College, will cover the "First Digital Nation Project," an effort intending to sustain Tuvalu’s statehood and culture through a metaverse and digital archive even after its physical territory ceases to exist due to climate change.

Agáta Hodková, from University of Richmond, will travel to Turks and Caicos to examine the transition of the small island of South Caicos from a fishing-based to a tourism-centric economy. 

Sophia Rentschler, from Missouri School of Journalism, will visit Peru, where the northern town of Parrachique has become a center for scallop production staffed predominantly by women. 

Saish Solankar, from Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, will use photography to document the Lionfish Derby of Utila, Honduras, where hunters are using "restorative management" to protect the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System.

Ethan Wu, from Elon University, will report from the Daxing District of Beijing, highlighting efforts to improve the water quality of the Liangshui River amidst algal blooms and chemicals. 

Meilun Yu, from University of Pennsylvania in Latin America and the Caribbean, will examine colonialism and climate debt in Barbados, investigating the human impacts of both.

Global Health

Kayden Anderson, from University of Oklahoma, will report on Oklahoma tribes coping with mental well-being in their communities amidst an underfunded Indian Health Service. Anderson's Fellowship is supported by the Pulitzer Center thanks to a grant from the IV Fund, focused on mental well-being in the United States.

Kwabena Aninkora, from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, will travel to Ghana's Ashanti region to investigate the pattern of unrecorded births and deaths, leading to difficulties in public health planning. 

Samuel Boison, from The George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health, will produce a series of audio stories on the role of Black herbalists and ethnobotanists practicing traditional medicine in Brazil.

Sunshine Brayans, from Westchester Community College, will spotlight the male birth doula community in New York and their role in promoting mental well-being during pregnancy and postpartum.

Anastasiia Carrier, from Columbia Journalism School, will report on on the mental health toll of losing access to maternal care after a local hospital in Farmville, Virginia, closed its labor and delivery unit in December 2025. Carrier's Fellowship is supported by the Pulitzer Center thanks to a grant from the IV Fund, focused on mental well-being in the United States.

Hyeyoon Cho, from University of California Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, will report on healing climate grief in Northern California through Indigenous wildfire stewardship practices. Cho's Fellowship is supported by the Pulitzer Center thanks to a grant from the IV Fund, focused on mental well-being in the United States.

Zindzi Frederick, from University of Wisconsin, will travel to Antigua and Barbuda, where in December 2025, a 26-year medical cooperation agreement with Cuba was ended, affecting healthcare access on the islands. 

Annikah Godard, from School of the Art Institute of Chicago, will document the experiences of Haitian women in New York as they navigate the American and traditional health systems while managing chronic illness. 

Charlie Kolodziej, from Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism, will travel to Puerto Rico, where outmigration has meant fewer caregivers and an epidemic of loneliness for the elderly population without family networks to support them.

Alexa Mikhail, from Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism, will cover the mental health and well-being of women in the "sandwich generation," those caring for an aging parent and a young child simultaneously. Mikhail's Fellowship is supported by the Pulitzer Center thanks to a grant from the IV Fund, focused on mental well-being in the United States.

Athira Suresh, from Boston University School of Public Health, will report from Kerala, India, where maternal mortality rates are low, but maternal mental health and postpartum depression often go ignored. 

Human Rights

Mikola Alabanza, from Northwestern University in Qatar, will share the post-migration experiences of Filipina domestic workers who migrated to Gulf Cooperation Council states to pursue work and have since reunited with their families in the Philippines.  

Hannah Bryant, from University of Oklahoma, will follow the journey of the Cuban Women's National Softball Team as they prepare for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, unsure of their eligibility to enter the U.S. due to government restrictions.

Sophia Cardona, from Flagler College, will explore the vulnerabilities faced by Cuba's elderly population—with about two million residents above the age of 60—amidst continuing U.S. sanctions. 

Reagan Grant, from Hunter College, will report on locally-led and women-centered networks of disaster response in Jamaica, with a specific focus on the Jamaica Network of Rural Women Producers as a key driver of resilience.

Savannah Soraghan, from Davidson College, will focus on language communities and activists in and around the cities of Quetzaltanago and Chimaltenango, Guatemala, highlighting efforts to revitalize native languages.

Kallejhay Terrelonge, from Boston University College of Communication, will document the lives of volunteers in Jamaica as they lead recovery efforts post-Hurricane Melissa, and include stories of Jamaican families receiving rebuilding assistance. 

Information and Artificial Intelligence

Joshua PeBenito, from City Colleges of Chicago, will document how AI is changing the college experience and curriculum in Chicago, highlighting impacts on both faculty and students. 

A'yanna Price, from Huston-Tillotson University, will cover shifting storytelling dynamics in Ghana, where novels are rising in popularity amidst a culture of oral storytelling.

Sara Romai, from University of Chicago, will report on anti-LGBTQ political rhetoric in Hungary, with a specific interest in the local and human impacts of those ideologies.

Mritika Senthil, from University of Pennsylvania South Asia Center, will examine how post-colonial governance and social change can reshape traditional Islamic endowments in India through a report on the afterlife of the Asaf Jahi fortune.

Peace and Conflict

Maria Mesropian, from Glendale Community College, will examine recognition of cultural loss amongst a younger generation of Armenians as that nation attempts to reclaim its identity through language use and historical memory.

Amel Mohdali, from Spelman College, will highlight stories of the more than one million Sudanese refugees in Egypt as of 2023, as they navigate housing insecurity, informal labor systems, and documentation difficulties. 

Kacie Moschella, from Syracuse University, will travel to Belfast, Northern Ireland, where an Irish language revival is taking place within the nation's hip-hop scene. 

Congratulations to all of the 2026 Campus Consortium Reporting Fellows!