Coleen Jose

REPORTING FELLOW

Coleen Jose, a senior at Davidson College in North Carolina, is a history major with a concentration in Asian Studies. Her current travel-reporting grant from the Pulitzer Center and Davidson's Dean Rusk International Studies Program will allow her to examine the impact of environmental exploitation in the Philippines.

Previous travels have taken Coleen from the southernmost tip of India to the Tibetan community's home in exile at the foot of the Himalayas. Her interest in journalism began in the summer of 2007 at Columbia University's School of Journalism where her first reporting project, on gentrification in Harlem, continues to frame her photography and writing.

In 2009, she joined nation-building efforts in the Philippines by working in political communications for Senator Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan. The following year, she volunteered with Gawad Kalinga, an international community development foundation.

For the Pulitzer Center, Coleen will write about the role of marine and logging industries on the most marginalized communities in the Philippines.