Pulitzer Center Update November 10, 2026
Reporting Fellows Converge on Washington, D.C., for Networking and Professional Development
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WASHINGTON, D.C. — Last month, the Pulitzer Center welcomed 34 student journalists to Washington, D.C., for 48 hours of networking, inspiration, and skill-building.
The Fellows, all recipients of the 2026 Campus Consortium Reporting Fellowship, traveled from across the United States and as far as Qatar to meet their cohort for the event in downtown D.C. on October 17-18.
Pulitzer Center CEO Lisa Gibbs welcomed the Fellows, encouraging them to pursue their stories with passion and commitment while thanking them for bringing to light important stories from around the world.
Fellows in this year’s cohort are from almost 30 schools, including journalism schools, community colleges, and HBCUs, and their projects are focused on stories around the world in all five of the Pulitzer Center’s focus areas—Climate and Environment, Global Health, Human Rights, Information and Artificial Intelligence, and Peace and Conflict.
Across the two-day event, seven journalists and former Pulitzer Center grantees shared their expertise in everything from pitching stories and navigating careers to reporting on sensitive communities with care and protecting one’s own mental well-being in a difficult career field.
The mental well-being panel, “Reporting With Care,” was moderated by Pulitzer Center’s Senior Editor for U.S. News Partnerships, Steve Sapienza, and included D.C. therapist Lisa Carlin and journalists Louie Palu, Molly Knight Raskin, and Nina Dietz.
The panelists shared advice for covering traumatic stories, building in self-checks for reporters, and seeking help throughout one’s career.
Student attendees also shared that the networking and camaraderie were invaluable.
“It was great to be around all those journalists/future journalists and see the commitment we all share for the craft,” one attendee said.
Fellows also had the opportunity to share their project status or practice pitching their project in an informal setting that allowed for feedback and questions from their peers.
“It was inspiring to meet other Fellows and hear about their projects and their life journeys,” Agáta Hodková said after the event.
Hodková is a Reporting Fellow from University of Richmond whose project—both an article and short documentary—explores how climate change and tourism impact South Caicos fisheries. Her documentary, The Big South Story, premiered at the CINEFISH Film Festival in Curaçao during the first week of November.
The weekend’s keynote speaker, Natalia Pérez-González, is an Afro-Latina journalist, producer, and assistant editor at Creator Spotlight (beehiiv). Her talk, “Journalism Is in Its Creator Era: 5 Lessons From Those Who’ve Made It,” highlighted approaches journalists can use to embrace content creation strategies and platforms for building a personal brand, finding an audience, and developing an area of expertise in their reporting.
Learn more about this year’s Fellows and their projects here.