Introducing the OPC Foundation Exchange

On Tuesday 18th of July, we launched the OPC Foundation Exchange with a summer happy hour in New York, bringing together OPC Foundation alumni from across three decades from Scholar Award winners in 1996 to our newest 2026 scholars.

The OPC Foundation Exchange is a new initiative designed to keep our alumni community connected long after their Scholar Award year. It’s a space for former scholars to reconnect with one another, exchange ideas and experiences, and continue building the relationships that are so important to a career in journalism.

Our alumni have gone on to report from around the world and work across newsrooms, documentary film, books, academia and other forms of storytelling. While their careers and interests are diverse, they share a common experience through the OPC Foundation and we want to create more opportunities for that community to stay connected.

The Exchange will bring alumni together through informal gatherings, virtual conversations and other opportunities to share their work and perspectives. We also hope it will create connections between different generations of OPC Foundation journalists, allowing newer scholars to learn from those who came before them.

Tuesday’s gathering was a wonderful start. It was great to see old friends, meet new ones and hear about the work everyone is doing.

This is just the beginning of the OPC Foundation Exchange. We look forward to bringing our alumni community together again soon.