Curious to know what our scholarship winners are up to, after they’ve accepted their awards? We caught up with a few. Here is what they had to report.
Craig Giammona is a reporter at Bloomberg News in New York, where he works on the consumer team covering the fast food industry, packaged food companies and consumer trends.
Jika González is a now a member of the Deadline Club board and a graduate of Columbia Journalism School, where she is currently completing a fellowship as a Senior Digital Media Associate and is an Adjunct Assistant Professor for photography and video. She covers stories on immigration, human rights, culture and identity. Her work has taken her to Cuba, Cambodia and Guatemala. She has gained experience at Magnum Photos, Condé Nast Traveler and CNN Mexico.
Julia Harte, was a summer U.S. news intern at The Wall Street Journal. After a fellowship at the Center for Public Integrity – a nonprofit investigative journalism organization in Washington, D.C. she is currently employed there as a national security reporter. She has been covering fraud, waste, and abuse in the Pentagon. The center publishes work in partnership with other news media, and her articles have appeared in Foreign Policy, TIME, Politico Magazine, Global Post, and other outlets.
Melanie Hicken graduated with a masters in business and economic reporting from NYU in 2012. Since then, she’s been a reporter at CNNMoney, where she’s covered everything from the government shutdown to the Detroit bankruptcy hearings. She is currently a staff writer on the site’s investigative team.
Rachael Levy graduated from CUNY School of Journalism in December 2014, is now a graduate trainee reporter at Absolute Return, covering the U.S. hedge fund industry.
Samir Patel is an adjunct professor at Columbia School of Journalism and is a science journalist, photographer, and editor. He is Deputy Editor of Archaeology Magazine, and his work has also appeared in Nature, The New York Times, Discover, Outside, Seed, Christian Science Monitor, Columbia Magazine, ArtAsiaPacific, and other publications.
Mary Pilon is an author, as her work “The Monopolists” came out last year and was well-received and was a national bestseller. Prior to that, she worked as a staff reporter at The New York Times writing about sports from 2008 to 2011, and covered business issues at The Wall Street Journal.
Deepashri Varadharajan was selected for a fellowship at Al Jazeera America in Fall 2014, where she pitched and reported stories for the website. She independently filmed and edited a documentary on long-term unemployment among older workers during her study at Columbia University, and is currently submitting the piece to film festivals. She also interns at Storyville Films, a documentary production company founded by Oren Jacoby.