These 9 Cronkite students were accepted as summer fellows for the Carnegie-Knight News21 initiative.
By Lisa Diethelm
Nine students from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University have been accepted as summer fellows for the national investigative reporting project out of the Carnegie-Knight News21 initiative.
The ASU students will join top journalism students from 16 other universities across the country to produce an in-depth report on the toll of COVID-19 on marginalized communities in America.
The team of student journalists will investigate the pandemic’s impacts on rural communities, including housing and living conditions, the homeless, the elderly, unemployment, farmers, undocumented workers, hunger, health and child care, education, crime and mortgage defaults.
The stories will be published online as a multimedia project and will be shared with industry publishing partners across the country. Previous investigations have been published by major news organizations such as The Washington Post, the Center for Public Integrity, NBC News and USA Today, as well as many nonprofit news websites.
News21 is led by Executive Editor Jacquee Petchel, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and professor of practice at the Cronkite School. The initiative was established a decade ago by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to demonstrate that college journalism students can produce national and innovative multimedia projects.
News21 projects have previously included investigations into the juvenile justice system, federal disaster aid inequity, guns in America, drinking water safety, voting rights and post-9/11 veterans, among other topics. The projects have won numerous awards, including several prestigious RFK Journalism Awards, five EPPYs from Editor & Publisher magazine, a host of honors from the Society of Professional Journalists and recognition from the Hearst Journalism Awards Program, considered the Pulitzer Prizes of collegiate journalism.
“Kids Imprisoned,” the 2020 remote News21 project about the American juvenile criminal justice system, earned the prestigious Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award this year, and was awarded first place in Online Presentation for the Best of the West 2021 contest.
“State of Emergency,” the 2019 News21 project covering the uneven federal aid for natural disasters, earned the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, won the top student award for the Online Journalism Awards and an Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) award.
“Hate in America,” the 2018 News21 project on the prevalence of hate crimes across the nation, also earned a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award and an Edward R. Murrow Award.
ASU student fellowships are funded by the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation, the Buffett Foundation, the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation and The Arizona Republic/USA Today. The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation provides core support for the News21 program.
The ASU fellows, their hometowns and their named fellowships are:
Jimmy Cloutier – Richmond, Virginia; Inasmuch Foundation Fellow
Chase Hunter – Verrado, Arizona; Buffett Foundation Fellow
Maya Leachman – Oberlin, Ohio; Inasmuch Foundation Fellow
Elliot McVeigh – Scottsdale, Arizona; Inasmuch Foundation Fellow
Michael Patton – Hill City, South Dakota; Buffett Foundation Fellow
Emily Schmidt – Newtown, Pennsylvania; News21 Fellow
Prince James Story – Atlanta, Georgia; News21 Fellow
Zachary Van Arsdale – Gilbert, Arizona; Buffett Foundation Fellow
Emma VandenEinde – Maple Plain, Minnesota; Don Bolles/Arizona Republic Fellow
They are joined by student fellows from Butler University, DePauw University, Elon University, Hofstra University, Kent State University, Quinnipiac University, St. Bonaventure University, Syracuse University, University of Alabama, University of British Columbia, University of Colorado Boulder, University of Houston, University of Nebraska Lincoln, University of Oklahoma, University of Tennessee at Knoxville and West Virginia University.