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Anna Savchenko grew up in a country with a restricted press. When she came to the United States as an undergraduate to study literature, she was not aware U.S. colleges and universities had their own newspapers — much less ones where students could challenge the school’s policies or even the country’s leaders. She was eager … Continued

While Ambar Castillo had worked at the campus newspaper as an undergraduate and had completed a reporting fellowship in India, she did not immediately go on to journalism school. She was a community health worker in the Bronx and a classroom teacher and health liaison at schools in Brooklyn. That work, which involved developing creative … Continued

Michaela Ramm is a healthcare reporter for the Des Moines Register. An Iowa native and graduate of Iowa State University’s Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication, Ramm joined the Poynter-Koch Media and Journalism Fellowship in the summer of 2020, in the middle of a global pandemic and at a time of racial unrest. At the … Continued

Challis Wells is a freelance writer and project-brand manager who will soon launch her own podcast. A Birmingham native, Wells began her journalism career at WBRC-TV, the city’s Fox affiliate and where she completed her Poynter-Koch Media and Journalism Fellowship. During her time at WBRC, Wells followed the story of Kamille “Cupcake” Mckinney, a three-year-old … Continued

Asher Lehrer-Small had been at The 74, a nonprofit news organization that covers the U.S. education system, for a year when he began the 2021-22 cohort of the Poynter-Koch Media and Journalism Fellowship. Though he never attended journalism school, he used his background in education policy and as a teacher to pivot to education reporting. … Continued

Andrea Keckley graduated with a degree in journalism from Stony Brook University in 2020 and joined the Poynter-Koch Media and Journalism Fellowship that fall. During her fellowship with D.C. Witness, an online news organization that covers criminal justice in the nation’s capital, she developed an enthusiasm for reporting on legal and criminal justice topics. She now … Continued

Before applying for the Poynter-Koch Media and Journalism Fellowship, Hernz Laguerre, Jr. had worked as an ESPN producer, a freelance videographer, and even as a teacher, introducing filmmaking to students in urban neighborhoods. His goal is to be an on-air personality and he was able to start on that path during his time with the … Continued

A 2018 graduate of Middlebury College,Tabitha Mueller started out at The Nevada Independent as an intern and is now a staff reporter. We talked to Mueller about her experience in the Poynter-Koch Media and Journalism Fellowship program. Why did you apply for the fellowship? I came to journalism in a nontraditional way. I created a joint major in … Continued

Miami Herald reporter Rebecca San Juan completed the Poynter-Koch Media and Journalism Fellowship one month before Champlain Towers South, a 12-story beachfront condominium in a Miami suburb, collapsed on June 24, 2021. Herald journalists were some of the first on the ground after the collapse, and San Juan and her colleagues — including Poynter-Koch alumni … Continued