Twenty-one student journalists from across the U.S. have gathered in Phoenix this summer to report on immigration enforcement as part of the award-winning Carnegie-Knight News21 program.
Headquartered at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, News21 brings together multimedia journalists from universities across the nation to report every year on one significant topic.
“From lawsuits over canceled student visas to protests on the streets of Los Angeles, immigration enforcement is at the forefront of American life in 2025,” said Pauline Arrillaga, professor of practice and executive director of the Carnegie-Knight News21 program. “Our fellows are covering all sides and all aspects of this divisive issue.”
This year’s cohort represents 10 schools. During the spring, fellows conducted extensive research before arriving in Phoenix to begin a 10-week reporting fellowship that already has taken them to more than two dozen communities in states including Florida, Texas, California, Idaho, New Jersey, Kansas and Michigan.
The final project, to be published toward the end of August, will be presented in text, video, audio, photos and graphics and shared with national media outlets for publication. Previously, Carnegie-Knight News21 work has been featured in The Associated Press, The Washington Post, USA Today, NBC News and hundreds of other outlets big and small.
Core funding for the program is provided Knight Foundation, and individual fellows are supported by their respective universities as well as a variety of foundations, news publications and philanthropic partners including the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, the Scripps Howard Foundation, The Arizona Republic/azcentral, Gray Television, NBCUniversal and more.
The work of News21 fellows has been recognized time and again in both professional and student contests. Content from last year’s project, “Fractured,” won three Telly Awards, a third-place honor in the National Headliner Awards and, for the second year in a row, News21 captured the Collaborative Journalism award in SPJ’s Mark of Excellence Awards.
In 2024, News21 was recognized with two RFK Journalism Awards – including the prestigious Grand Prize, a rare honor for college journalists.
Fellows in this summer’s News21 program are:
- Aaron Stigile, Arizona State University
- Abigail Wilt, Arizona State University
- Alexa Durben, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
- Alissa Gary, University of Florida
- Ann Marie Vanderveen, University of Colorado Boulder
- Avery Callens, University of North Texas
- Carlos Rene Castro, Arizona State University
- David Scibilia, St. Bonaventure University
- Grace Berry, Arizona State University
- Gracyn Thatcher, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
- Hannah Psalma Ramirez, San Diego State University
- Jessica Sachs, University of Colorado Boulder
- Lee Ann Anderson, University of Florida
- Lorenzo Gomez, Arizona State University
- Marissa Lindemann, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
- Meghan O’Brien, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
- Mia Hilkowitz, Indiana University Bloomington
- Mikayla Melo, Syracuse University
- Ryan Luetkemeyer, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
- Sydney Lovan, Arizona State University
- Tristan E. M. Leach, Arizona State University
Students interested in learning more about News21 and future scholarship opportunities should visit https://news21.com/join-our-team/. Media organizations interested in potentially publishing the project or portions of it should reach out to Arrillaga at pauline.arrillaga@asu.edu. More information on past News21 projects is available at https://cronkite.asu.edu/experiences/news21/.