ProPublica’s Emerging Reporters Program, now in its eighth year, is focused on providing financial resources and mentorship to students for whom investigative journalism might otherwise be inaccessible, so they can pursue early career opportunities in the field.
Participants receive a $9,000 stipend, a trip to the annual NICAR investigative journalism conference, occasional training and presentations by speakers. They’ll also be paired one-on-one with ProPublica journalists, who can help counsel them on stories, build their connections in the industry and expose them to the varied paths for careers in investigative journalism. Past Emerging Reporters have gone on to work at The New York Times, The Atlantic, THE CITY, Vox and other outlets.
Our goal is to encourage the next generation of journalists who seek to shine a light on abuses of power and produce stories of moral force that provoke change. In choosing the class, we look for students who demonstrate an early dedication to journalism as a career, through internships, work at local news outlets or campus publications. And where those opportunities — which are often unpaid — aren’t accessible, we look for other ways the student has shown an eagerness and drive to learn the craft.
The 2022-2023 academic year’s class of outstanding student journalists are from Florida and New Mexico, Colorado and Shanghai. They represent a range of collegiate journeys, and their desire to learn and pursue ambitious, important stories inspired us. Through their work, the students have already shown not only their dedication to the craft, but a yearning to tell stories with the potential for impact.
They have investigated university labor disputes and inaccurate health insurance directories that can lead to big bills for patients. They’ve helped launch hyperlocal news outlets and worked as full-time reporters in addition to carrying a full course load. Some of them are editors and reporters at their school newspapers, while others are preparing to look for their first professional newsroom jobs.
We’re so excited to support them.
Meet our 2022 class:
Chad Bradley is a senior at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication majoring in journalism and minoring in American Indian studies. Bradley’s reporting focuses on indigenous communities and tribal nations, and he hopes to improve coverage and understanding of the issues Indigenous people face. They currently fact-check with PolitiFact Arizona for the 2022 midterm elections and previously reported for Carnegie-Knight News21 and Cronkite News. Bradley is from northwestern New Mexico and is a member of the Navajo Nation.
Kevin Palomino is a junior at the University of Oklahoma majoring in journalism and minoring in international studies. Palomino serves as the president of his school's chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. For the past two years, he was a reporter at Telemundo Oklahoma, covering news stories ranging from death penalty executions to Oklahoma's wild, severe weather. Palomino was born in Chihuahua, Mexico, and immigrated to Oklahoma with his family in 2005.
Yiwen Lu is a senior studying economics and political science at University of Chicago, where she serves as the managing editor for The Chicago Maroon. Her reporting focuses on subjects at the intersection of business and technology. Lu previously worked at The Washington Post, USA TODAY, NBC Chicago and The Charlotte Observer. She also participated in the Politico Student Journalism Institute and the Asian American Journalists Association’s Voices program in 2022. Lu is from Shanghai, China.
Alexandra Caban-Echevarria is a senior at Muhlenberg College, majoring in both media & communication and English. She is a managing editor at The Muhlenberg Weekly and the assistant editor of the Allentown Voice, a nonprofit news project covering Allentown’s affordable housing crisis. She worked as part of the inaugural team of journalists on the project and currently runs the project’s social media channels.
Alex Perry is a junior at Northwestern University double majoring in economics and journalism with a minor in data science. Currently a part-time associate copy editor at Axios, Perry has interned at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Macon Telegraph and the Johns Creek Herald. She is also currently a managing editor at The Daily Northwestern. She’s passionate about investigative business journalism, as well as the business of journalism, and wants to report on the media industry.
Nadia Bey is a senior at Duke University, where she is digital strategy director and former managing editor of the daily student newspaper, The Chronicle. Bey was the first intern on McClatchy’s North Carolina investigations team, writing about health, policy and gun violence for The Charlotte Observer and its sister papers in summer 2022. Her interests include public health, data, education and labor. She is from Huntersville, North Carolina.
Cameron Pugh is a senior at Williams College, where he studies English and Africana studies. Pugh currently serves as the managing editor of The Williams Record, and before that he served as a section editor for the paper’s arts section. He has been an investigative reporting intern at GBH News — at Boston’s local NPR station — where he contributed to covering labor trafficking in Massachusetts and beyond. He is from Port St. Lucie, Florida.
Irie Sentner is a junior at Columbia University studying political science and creative nonfiction. He serves as the university news editor for the Columbia Daily Spectator, is an incoming intern on the NBC News digital politics desk and previously interned for the New York Post. He is originally from Durango, Colorado.
