Pulitzer Center Celebrates the Next Generation of Journalists in D.C.

“We need you,” Pulitzer Center grantee Stephanie Hanes told Reporting Fellows at Washington Weekend 2024. “Your neighbors need you. This country needs you. The world needs you. And you need you because doing this work—this real human-to-human craft of listening and understanding and loving—has never been more important.”

Washington Weekend is an annual celebration for the Pulitzer Center’s Campus Consortium Reporting Fellowship program, which supports student journalists from partner universities in covering underreported issues around the globe and within the United States.

This year, from October 18 to 20, more than 40 Reporting Fellows from journalism schools, state universities, liberal arts colleges, HBCUs, schools of public health, and community colleges gathered in the U.S. capital to share their work, get to know each other, and explore the city.

The Fellows discussed their reporting, diving into a variety of subjects, including the impact of climate change on herders in Mongolia and health care for Venezuelan migrants in Brazil. The weekend allowed them to learn from each other’s experiences, successes, and challenges.

On October 18, Karima Haynes, who marked her first Washington Weekend as director of the Reporting Fellows Program, introduced the Pulitzer Center staff and welcomed everyone to the Omni Shoreham Hotel.

As Fellows entered the venue, they were invited to get-to-know one another during a Bingo-like game.

The rest of the afternoon featured Reporting Fellow panels on human rights and climate and environment issues. Fellows gave short presentations about their projects and took part in Q&A sessions.

“How do you store insulin in a refugee camp where the temperature is 90 degrees with 90% humidity?” asked Maya Reid, a Reporting Fellow from The George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health, during the first human rights panel. Reid traveled to Bangladesh in June 2024 to examine diabetes care in refugee camps.

During the second panel on climate and the environment, University of Oklahoma Reporting Fellow Maddy Keyes urged the audience to “pay attention to the statistics, but also look beyond them.” During her reporting in Greenland, Keyes wanted to focus on the human lives behind the statistics as she investigated climate change consequences for the Inuit population.

The day ended with a formal dinner at the National Press Club for Reporting Fellows, Pulitzer Center leadership, and special guests, including journalists, Campus Consortium partners, and faculty.

“To the 2024 Fellows, this is an evening where we celebrate you for your exemplary work and your dedication to telling underreported stories across our world,” Haynes said at the National Press Club. “It is your unique blend of compassion and tenacity and devotion to the craft of journalism that will make a lasting impression for generations to come."

Haynes introduced the first two speakers of the night: Pulitzer Center CEO and President Lisa Gibbs and Chief Engagement and Education Officer Flora Pereira. Both emphasized the importance of engagement and challenging the young journalists to find audiences for their stories.

Pulitzer Center Reporting Fellow Program Manager Libby Moeller introduced the next guest speaker: Lawrence Andrea, a 2020 University of Wisconsin-Madison Reporting Fellow and current Washington correspondent for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Andrea reflected on his unique Reporting Fellowship, describing the lessons he learned about flexibility as a young reporter during the pandemic.

“If I keep my eyes open, keep my schedule open—I could learn things that I didn’t initially anticipate,” he said. This tip helped him throughout his career.

Reporting Fellow Program Coordinator Jazmyn Gray introduced The Christian Science Monitor’s Stephanie Hanes, who also leads the College of William & Mary’s Sharp Seminar. Hanes encouraged Fellows to stick with journalism and take advantage of local, grassroots reporting opportunities.

“Reporting, as you guys are learning, is fun,” Hanes said. “You get to see places, meet people, and do things that you’d never otherwise get to do. You get to be out of place. You get to learn. You connect and witness and experience. You get to be intentionally awkward and you get to share—it’s all fantastic.”

The next day began with a professional panel on navigating information, misinformation, and disinformation in political campaigns. Haynes moderated the discussion.

“The fact is most people don’t know how to distinguish real news from fake news, and it’s a big problem,” Kadia Goba, a 2018 Hunter College Reporting Fellow and a political reporter at Semafor, said during the panel. “It’s something we’re constantly trying to combat.”

The panel also featured Adam Ambrogi, the chief of external affairs at the League of Women Voters of the United States; Deborah Barfield Berry, a 2023 Nieman fellow and national correspondent at USA TODAY; and Nadine Strossen, a law professor at New York Law School and past president of the American Civil Liberties Union. Discussion topics covered the role of journalism in politics, the importance of free speech, and some strategies to make political information more accessible.

Panelists also commended the Fellows for their interest in covering the world’s most pressing issues. “I want to end by thanking all of you,” Strossen said. “I mean, your integrity, your courage, your principles, your eloquence, and your commitment—the future of our democracy, liberty, and equality are in your hands.”

Reporting Fellow presentations on global health, peace and conflict, and human rights followed the morning panel.

“So often the stories of Indigenous people in the U.S., Canada, and all over the world have a through line of suffering and loss,” said Boston University School of Public Health Reporting Fellow Caroline Dignard during the global health panel. Dignard reported on food sovereignty among Arctic Inuit communities. “I am far more interested to write about ingenuity, self-determination, and successful solution-making.”

During the panel on peace and conflict reporting, Guttman Reporting Fellow Marcos Quinones said, “This is a room full of journalists. As much as your stories matter, your story matters.” Quinones used photojournalism to capture his project, which focused on university student protests in New York City in support of Palestinians. Reporting Fellows Gaia Caramazza and Kira Boden-Gologorsky produced a documentary film about protests on their home campus, Columbia University, and also shared their work during the panel.

The final Saturday panel featured Reporting Fellows' stories on human rights.

Spelman College Reporting Fellow Montsho Canton said her reporting on Chile’s efforts to reduce recidivism showed that “the community should be a part of the solution.” Canton had previously spent time in Chile researching the same topic and used the Reporting Fellowship to return and continue her reporting.

After the day’s presentations, the Reporting Fellows embarked on a scavenger hunt to explore D.C. and see the monuments. They started in Adams Morgan and made their way through northwest D.C. to see the White House and Lincoln Memorial, among other attractions, before ending the walking tour in Foggy Bottom.

That evening, the Reporting Fellows joined Pulitzer Center staff at Duke’s Grocery in Foggy Bottom. They caught up on each other’s projects, traded stories from the field, and made connections.

Washington Weekend 2024 culminated on October 20 with additional Reporting Fellow presentations on climate and the environment and peace and conflict.

Reporting Fellow Zaya Delgerjargal from Yale University shared a trailer for her documentary film, Herders at the Edge. Her reporting found that climate change in Mongolia is increasingly threatening the livelihoods of herders in the country. “Climate change steals people’s dreams,” Delgerjargal told the audience during her presentation.

The final panel of the weekend, Peace & Conflict II, featured stories of migration, asylum seekers, diaspora communities, and more. While presenting her project on Venezuelan migrant health in Brazil, Johns Hopkins University Reporting Fellow Julianna Deutscher reiterated the strength of her interviewees: “The lens that I think needs to be shared is the one of resilience in this community.”

The Reporting Fellows surprised Pulitzer Center staff members with signed postcards before parting ways that afternoon, promising to stay in touch with each other, as well as with the Pulitzer Center staff and professional journalists they met during the weekend. Many Fellows lingered to say their goodbyes, take photos, and thank the Pulitzer Center team for its work on the event.

Thank you to the following for making the weekend possible:

Reporting Fellows team Karima Haynes, Libby Moeller, and Jazmyn Gray; the University and Outreach team's Ann Peters, Mikaela Schmitt, and Ethan Widlansky; the Communications team, including Multimedia Coordinator Daniel Vasta and Design Manager Lucy Crelli; videographers Mark Sugg and Phillip Warfield; Digital Production Assistant Grace Jensen; Editorial Intern Morgan Varnado; Chief Financial and Operating Officer Mouhamad Alem; IT Manager Ash Guevara; Chief Engagement and Education Officer Flora Pereira; and CEO Lisa Gibbs. Communications Director Sarah Swan and Social Media Coordinator Alonso Balbuena also played key roles.