Congratulations to the 2026 Scholar Award Winners
While leading high-profile child safety initiatives at Meta, Reva saw firsthand how investigative reporting could accelerate accountability on complex global issues like online exploitation. She pivoted to journalism, pursuing a master’s degree in political and investigative reporting at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Reva’s essay focused on Argentina’s midterm elections under President Javier Milei, examining how austerity measures are reshaping public support amid inflation and job losses. She plans to pursue business and investigative reporting in Latin America, focusing on U.S.–Mexico trade and the border economy. Reva holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Princeton with a minor in Spanish. She has advanced proficiency in Spanish and is conversational in Hindi and Urdu.
Reva Abrol
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
S&P GLOBAL AWARD FOR ECONOMIC AND BUSINESS REPORTING
Endowed by S&P Global
Gibran Caroline Boyce is a Trinidadian-American multimedia journalist from Long Island, New York, covering Washington and the world. Her work spans broadcast, narrative written features, investigations and photojournalism. She currently works as a production assistant at NBC News and aspires to become an on-air correspondent and anchor. Boyce began her international reporting career in 2025 as an intern with EVN Report in Armenia. Additionally, her reporting and photojournalism from the U.S.-Mexico Border have appeared in The Guardian, El País, and local U.S. outlets. She previously interned at CNN on Fareed Zakaria GPS and aired her first broadcast news package on Spectrum News NY1. Boyce recently earned her M.A. in international reporting and broadcast journalism from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. She previously earned a B.A. in international studies and journalism from Boston College.
Gibran Caroline Boyce
Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY
WALTER & BETSY CRONKITE SCHOLARHIP
Sponsored by Mercedes-Benz
Hyeyoon Cho
University of California, Berkeley
REUTERS SCHOLARHIP
Sponsored by Reuters
Hyeyoon’s focus on international reporting began with questions about her grandfather, a Korean soldier who fought for the U.S. during the Vietnam War and later died from cancer linked to Agent Orange exposure. That search led her to rural Vietnamese villages, where she documented civilian massacres carried out by Korean troops. She is a master’s student in journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, concentrating on narrative and investigative reporting. Her essay examines survivors of the Hà My massacre and how the absence of official records has shaped decades-long efforts for accountability. Hyeyoon has covered refugee policy and human rights for the San Francisco Chronicle and is working as a researcher at Berkeley Law’s Human Rights Center. She plans to pursue cross-border reporting on war, memory, and displacement. Hyeyoon has an internship with Reuters in Seoul.
Hanna Davis
New York University
EDITH LEDERER SCHOLARSHIP
Endowed by Edith Lederer and friends
Hanna’s reporting journey began at The Jordan Times, where a veteran journalist's struggle against declining press freedom spurred her initial disillusionment into a deep curiosity for regional storytelling. Since then, her work for outlets like The New Humanitarian and Al Jazeera English has spanned Lebanese conflict zones and migration crises in Cyprus and Jordan. Her reporting on the besieged Rukban camp in southern Syria prompted U.S. Central Command to deliver humanitarian aid. Hanna recently documented the mass homecoming of thousands to Tremseh, Syria, who were displaced following a 2012 massacre. Hanna plans to continue this human-centered research by examining the reintegration of Syrians from ISIS detention camps and the struggles for the Yezidi population in Syria. Hanna speaks basic Spanish and conversational Arabic.
Sonya Dymova
Northwestern University
SALLY JACOBSEN SCHOLARHIP
Endowed by family and friends
At the age of 12, after growing up in a Siberian family that endured the toll of mafia murder, plunder, and institutional silence, Sonya resolved to become an investigator who reports on injustice when others will not. An undergraduate journalism and political science student at Northwestern University, she has reported on national security and human rights from Washington, Armenia, and Illinois. Sonya’s work ranges from covering the human cost of displacement from Artsakh to exposing Illinois sheriffs willing to cooperate with federal immigration authorities despite state law prohibitions. As an investigative intern, she is currently documenting Russian disinformation in German far-right spaces and scrutinizing Trump-linked foreign lobbying networks in the U.S. She intends to report on how ongoing Ukrainian strikes in Western Russia have shifted local public opinion against the war. Sonya speaks fluent English and native Russian, with skills in Italian, Ukrainian, and German.
Hamza Adel Fahmy
University of California, Berkeley
RICK DAVIS - DEB AMOS SCHOLARSHIP
Endowed by Deb Amos and friends
Hamza’s recent reporting on the counterfeit industry in Egypt led to fears of political censorship, opening the door for his work in the United States. His experience reporting in high-risk environments solidified his commitment to public-service journalism across the Middle East and French-speaking Africa. Currently a master’s student at the University of California, Berkeley, Hamza has served as a digital producer for KRON4 and is an award-winning audio reporter covering topics like child marriage in California. He also reported for Egypt’s MO4 Network, profiling cultural figures like Mohammad Al-Hawajri, a Palestinian artist whose house was turned to rubble after being attacked by Israeli airstrikes in 2023. Trilingual in English, Arabic, and French, Hamza aims to use his on-the-ground experience to document complex stories across the Arab and French-speaking worlds.
Will Fitzpatrick
New York University
RICHARD PYLE SCHOLARHIP
Endowed by family and friends
Will, a recent graduate from NYU's master's program focusing on news and documentary film, honed his visual storytelling in southern Argentina, where he documented Mapuche families facing displacement under the Javier Milei administration, the subject of his essay. His experience in remote Patagonia solidified his commitment to seeking out underreported stories that mirror higher-profile global crises and uprooted communities. Before transitioning to journalism, Will served as an associate at Eurasia Group, where he translated complex geopolitical and economic shifts into actionable analysis for institutional investors. He has produced and edited video pieces for PBS and the YouTube show Standing Room Only. Will plans to continue his character-driven independent filmmaking across the globe, seeking out stories in hard to reach places.
Maggie Grether
Yale University
FRITZ BEEBE SCHOLARHIP
Endowed by Anne and Larry Martz
Maggie, a history student at Yale University proficient in Spanish and Korean, first humanized the affordable housing crisis through her reporting for the Yale Daily News and The Nation. As an economics intern at The Wall Street Journal, she produced a top-read feature on homelessness policy and helped cover the New York City mayoral primary. Her investigative work extends to domestic justice, including an independent study for the Investigative Reporting Lab at Yale that uses public records and autopsies to examine the misclassification of in-custody deaths in California jails. Her essay examines the systemic dismantling of legal protections for unaccompanied migrant children, a topic she explored through extensive interviews with immigration attorneys. Inspired by her grandmother’s flight from North Korea during the Korean War, Maggie has reported on migrant communities from the U.S. Rust Belt to the Darién Gap and is eager to focus her future work on global displacement and asylum throughout Asia and Latin America.
Fiona Kelliher
London School of Economics
ROY ROWAN SCHOLARHIP
Endowed by family, friends and admirers
Fiona’s essay investigated the brutal transnational human trafficking industry, focusing on East Africans trafficked into forced labor at Myanmar cyberscam centers. An investigative journalist with six years of experience in the U.S. and Southeast Asia, she has reported for The Guardian, Al Jazeera, and Foreign Policy, and edited for an independent Cambodian outlet before government pressure forced it to close. Drawing on her expertise in open-source intelligence and public records, she co-found a database project to provide original data journalism and analysis in Cambodia and regularly contributes to collaborative OSINT projects in the region. Fiona holds a degree from Stanford University and recently completed a master’s in global politics at the London School of Economics. Proficient in Spanish with intermediate Khmer competency, she covers the human impacts of labor exploitation, transnational crime and global capitalism.
Kelly’s essay examined the mass relocation in the Americas explicitly driven by climate change and overpopulation, focusing on the Guna people of Gardi Sugdub, Panama, as they navigate the loss of their ancestral island. After witnessing devastating natural disasters in China, she joined Tipping Point, the country’s first digital magazine dedicated to climate change. Kelly has reported for The Paper, Sixth Tone, and Southern Weekly, covering global crises from human trafficking in the Philippines to earthquakes in Turkey and Syria. She holds a bachelor's degree in international relations and broadcast journalism from New York University and is pursuing a master’s in journalism at UC Berkeley. Fluent in English and Mandarin with additional skills in Cantonese and Spanish, Kelly is dedicated to humanizing environmental change through visual storytelling.
Kelly Liu
University of California, Berkeley
NATHAN S. BIENSTOCK SCHOLARHIP
Endowed by Richard Leibner and Carole Cooper
Maggie McCabe
Davidson College
DAVID R. SCHWEISBERG SCHOLARHIP
Sponsored by the Schweisberg family
Maggie deepened her interest in Eastern Europe while reporting from Tbilisi, Georgia, where she interviewed journalists facing media restrictions and state-sponsored intimidation. In her essay, Maggie detailed the systemic financial and legal pressures suffocating Georgia’s independent media, from jailing editors to freezing international grants. As a Division 1 athlete in competitive swimming, she developed the discipline and resilience she now applies to investigative work and passion for documenting attacks on press freedom. A senior at Davidson College majoring in political science and communication, she has interned for Loudoun Now, Inside Politics with Dana Bash at CNN, Firing Line on PBS, and WBTV News. She is dedicated to reporting on regions where the flow of information is weaponized and institutions are under threat.
Ben Raab
Yale University
EMANUEL R. FREEDMAN SCHOLARHIP
Endowed by family
In his essay, Ben exposed segregation in a school system in southern Tel Aviv, where migrant parents are fighting for an integrated education for thousands of children. A history and political science student at Yale University, he has reported for The Wall Street Journal and The Jerusalem Post, covering topics ranging from AI prediction markets and supply chains behind U.S.-made smartphones, to judicial reform protests. Ben served as the managing editor for the Yale Daily News, where he oversaw a staff of over 100 and managed nightly production. Fluent in Spanish and proficient in Hebrew, he is committed to providing human-centered coverage of the Middle East and plans to report from Cairo on the region’s shifting relationship with Israel. Ben has an OPC Foundation fellowship with Reuters in Jerusalem.
Josie’s essay examined how the fate of asylum seekers largely depends on which immigration judge they're assigned, creating a system where asylum denial rates fluctuate by as much as 90 percent between judges. During her internship at The Wall Street Journal, she focused on business and technology, writing features on Silicon Valley and federal tax policy. Josie also reported on local policy for The Connecticut Mirror and Washingtonian Magazine. A senior at Yale University, she covered protests and the university administration for The Yale Daily News, and she serves as senior editor of The New Journal and fellow of the Yale Journalism Initiative. She is interested in a career as a foreign correspondent, with a particular passion for narrative, international long-form journalism.
Josie Reich
Yale University
HARPER’S MAGAZINE /I.F. STONE SCHOLARHIP
Endowed by John R. MacArthur, Publisher of Harper’s, and the Pierre F. Simon Charitable Trust
Yurii Stasiuk
Yale University
ROB URBAN AWARD FOR REPORTING IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE
Sponsored by colleagues and friends
Yurii anchored his conviction for objective reporting following the 2022 invasion of his native Ukraine, where he first navigated the complexities of wartime information environments. His passion for bridging information ecosystems led him to translate American political developments for Ukrainian audiences and investigate democratic backsliding in Georgia. In his essay, Yurii examines the high-stakes election in Moldova, detailing how systematic Russian vote-buying and disinformation campaigns have threatened to derail the nation's pro-European trajectory. A history and data science student at Yale University, he has served as the print managing editor of the Yale Daily News and recently completed a breaking news internship at POLITICO Europe in Brussels. Yurii is fluent in Ukrainian and Russian, and proficient in Polish, and hopes to document the geopolitical realignments in the post-Soviet spaces.
Lottie first developed an interest in reporting during student climate protests in the U.K., where she witnessed how press coverage informed and energized a youth movement. Before moving to the U.S. last summer, she spent a year reporting for The Times and The Sunday Times of London. She covered stories from breaking news in Gaza to European bus travel to a pair of Ukrainians opening a restaurant in London in the hopes of highlighting their country's culture outside the context of the war, the subject of her essay. Now a master’s candidate at Columbia University, Lottie earned her bachelor's degree in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics (PPE) from Merton College at the University of Oxford. She speaks conversational French and is currently learning Italian and Mandarin. In her career, she hopes to work on improving news literacy among young people and to report on the intersection of foreign policy and politics across the globe.
Lottie Tellyn
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
IRENE CORBALLY KUHN SCHOLARHIP
Endowed by the Scripps Howard Foundation
Pau Torres Pagès
New York University
STAN SWINTON SCHOLARHIP
Endowed by the Swinton family
Growing up during the height of the Catalan independence movement in Spain ignited Pau’s interest at an early age in the tensions between a state and its citizens. In his essay, he explores the nuanced challenges of globalization in Greenland, documenting how a burgeoning tourism industry serves as a tool for economic independence from Denmark and a potential threat to Inuit cultural identity. A graduate student in international relations and journalism at New York University, Pau has reported from the U.S., France, Scotland, and Luxembourg, and served as an on-air reporter for Spanish Public Radio. He also gained policy experience as a trainee at the European Parliament and an intern for the United Nations Development Program. Fluent in Spanish, Catalan, and English with basic proficiency in French, Pau is dedicated to enhancing the representation of minorities and human rights stories across the globe.
Seven developed a passion for ethnographic filmmaking while documenting the struggles of Chinese women whose children were violently taken by fathers, using a legal system that does not protect mothers’ rights. Her award-winning reporting was rooted in the experiences of her own female relatives. In her essay, she examined the human cost of China’s AI economy, profiling rural mothers who labor as data labelers for four cents per task while seeking independence from family life. Seven has reported from Uganda, Papua New Guinea, and the United States, and previously served as a video journalist for The Paper in Shanghai, where she published over 20 in-depth documentaries. A bilingual master’s candidate at UC Berkeley, Seven plans to continue challenging stereotypes of Chinese women and women across the world through international storytelling.
Seven Wu
University of California, Berkeley
THE SEYMOUR AND AUDREY TOPPING SCHOLARHIP
Sponsored by donations from the Topping and Cone families and friends
For the first 25 years of Jinger’s life in China, she paid little attention to politics or journalism, following peers in her belief in the Communist Party. But during a program that brought her to New York, she discovered a book about the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre. She soon developed a love of journalism and a passion for press freedom she had not previously been exposed to. In her essay, she reported Coinbase’s global spree ambitions through mergers and acquisitions. She previously worked in PR at BlueFocus in Beijing, freelanced for Southern Weekly, interned at The Xylom, and now contributes to The Sunset Post. She holds a master’s in business and economics, broadcast reporting from CUNY, and earned a bachelor’s degree in radio and television editing and directing from the Communication University of Shanxi, China. Fluent in Mandarin and English, Jinger is dedicated to using multimedia storytelling to make complex economic policy and financial terms more accessible worldwide.
Jinger Zhang
Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY
JERRY FLINT SCHOLARHIP FOR INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS REPORTING
Supported by family and friends
Shartia Brantley, Bloomberg
Bill Collins, OPC Foundation
John Daniszewski, OPC Foundation
Eddie Evans, E2-Communications
Tim Ferguson, OPC Foundation
Joe Flint, Wall Street Journal
Allan Dodds Frank, OPC Foundation
Paul Haven, Associated Press
Caitlin Hu, CNN International
William Holstein, OPC Foundation
Adam Horvath, OPC Foundation
Karen Mahabir, Associated Press
Larry Martz, OPC Foundation
Marcy McGinnis, Exact Communications
Jim Pensiero, OPC Foundation
Sarah Rabil, Wall Street Journal
Charlie Sennott, The GroundTruth Project
Michael Serrill, OPC Foundation
Brunella Tipismana, OPC Foundation Scholar ’24
Ed Tobin, Reuters
Robin Topping, Newsday Media
Karen Toulon, Versant Media
Tiffany Wu, Reuters
Laura Zelenko, Bloomberg
Thank you to the judges: