2022-2023

Anna Pope

Anna Pope covers agriculture and rural communities for KOSU, an NPR affiliate in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Born and raised in Oklahoma, Pope holds a bachelor’s degree in multimedia journalism from Oklahoma State University, where she reported for the university’s paper and later became its news editor. Pope interned at KOSU public radio, and was a 2021 Community Fellow with the Inasmuch Foundation, a nonprofit with the goal of improving the quality of life for Oklahomans.

Mirtha Donastorg

Mirtha Donastorg reports for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She is a journalist with experience in TV, digital and radio, and was most recently an associate producer at CNN Digital where she helped curate multiple homepage platforms, as well as craft breaking news alerts viewed by millions daily. As a researcher for CNN, Donastorg fact-checked scripts from correspondents all over the globe and most notably, reported on the conviction of an abusive Catholic priest. Outside of work, she shares her love of soul music from around the world as a host of a weekly two-hour local radio show. Donastorg grew up in Auburn, Alabama. She’s a proud alumna of North Carolina State University, and is fluent in Spanish and French.

The Texas Newsroom/KERA

NPR and Texas public radio stations collaborated to form the Texas News Hub. It’s the first step in a systemwide collaborative project to create a nationwide virtual public radio newsroom of 1,000-plus journalists. The collaboration includes two daily, hour-long statewide programs (Texas Standard and Think) and will soon include six daily statewide newscasts, and a statewide digital news desk. The Hub is working to hire and train freelance and small station reporters to provide news service to underserved communities in the state’s news deserts.

Anya Szerzenie

Anya Sczerzenie is currently the education reporter for the HenricoCitizen, where she covers the school system with a focus on educationalequity. She previously did freelance work in Northern Virginia, covering awide range of topics from historical houses to the DC metro’s Silver Lineopening to the local schools. She is a graduate of Virginia CommonwealthUniversity where she was a contributing writer for the student newspaper,the Commonwealth Times, and held an internship with RVA Mag-- where shecovered local culture and LGBTQ topics.

Eric Standing

Eric Standing’s history with the Journal began in January 2022 when he began writing a humor column. His first experience with paid writing inspired him to want to pursue journalism as a full time career. The idea of taking pictures of people, places and events while telling their stories has appealed to him since he was a child. Standing is a dual citizen of Canada and America as well as Canadian born First Nations person with treaty rights. He occasionally covers stories in Saskatchewan for Eagle Feather News as well as working for the Journal. In May of 2022, Standing participated in the Indigenous Communications Arts (INCA) Summer Institute in Journalism. Through the First Nations University of Canada, Standing was able to train with professional journalists from CBC, CTV, APTN, Eagle Feather News and the Canadian Press. Standing considers himself an outdoorsman and his passions include hunting and fishing. His connections to his family and the land in North Dakota helped his decision to stay.

Loan-Anh Pham

Loan-Anh Pham is a bilingual education reporter at San José Spotlight, a nonprofit newsroom inthe heart of Silicon Valley. At Spotlight, Pham covers K-12 schools and aims to highlighteducational inequities in one of the nation’s most expensive areas. She previously reported onAsian American issues at AsAmNews and #IAmNotAVirus, and was a Spotlight intern coveringVietnamese communities. A recent UCLA graduate, Pham worked at the Daily Bruin, reportingon issues like immigration and gun violence. She obtained degrees in communication, publicaffairs and gender studies. Her fondest journalism memories include working as editor-in-chiefof her high school newspaper, The Union. She loves Vietnamese coffee, overfilled bookshelvesand puns.

Atiya Irvin-Mitchell

Atiya Irvin-Mitchell is a Pittsburgh native who graduated from Chatham University in 2017 after studyingCommunications and Political Science with a focus in journalism. Over the years she has written forThe Student Guide to Pittsburgh, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The New Pittsburgh Courier,PublicSource, Vice, The PLS Reporter, PINJ News, and BlackPittsburgh.com. Irvin-Mitchell is excited tolearn more about the tech industry in Pittsburgh and do her part to make information on rapidlychanging trends accessible to the general public.

Prince James Story

Prince James Story covers criminal and social justice for Black Voice News, an online news publication in Riverside, California. Before joining Black Voice News, Story was one of the 2021 Carnegie-Knight NEWS21 Fellows working on the multimedia reporting project “Unmasking America: The Lingering Toll of COVID-19.” Story also served as a digital reporter for the United States Olympic and Paralympic committee for their “Olympians Made Here” campaign. While earning his master’s degree from Arizona State University, he was a graduate assistant for the Global Sport Institute and covered Arizona State football. He also wrote articles on issues involving social inequalities in underserved areas and communities of color while spotlighting efforts by individuals and organizations to address these communal issues. In December 2021, Story earned his master’s degree in Sports Journalism from Arizona State University-Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication and received the Outstanding Graduate Student award for the Fall Convocation. He earned a B.A. in Mass Communication and a B.A. in African American studies from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Mehr Sher

Mehr Sher is working as a statewide environmental reporter for Bangor Daily News in Maine.Sher has always been passionate about telling underreported stories from undercoveredregions. Prior to joining BDN, Sher graduated from Columbia Journalism School with honors forher master’s degree in investigative journalism. During the program, she reported extensivelyon the Afghan refugee resettlement program and investigated the effectiveness of hate crimelegislation in Indiana. Sher began her journalism career abroad in Pakistan,where she was based for over six years. During her career there, she investigated systemicfailure, an inadequate health care system, and a cover up, which led to the exacerbation of anHIV/AIDs outbreak in over a thousand children in Larkana, Sindh. In 2015, she graduated fromNorth Carolina State University with a bachelor’s in international relations. Sher speaks manylanguages – including Pashto, Urdu, intermediate French, basic Korean, and is currentlyindependently learning Farsi. She is originally from Raleigh, North Carolina and is an ethnicPashtun from northwestern Pakistan. Sher appreciates great coffee, music, films, poetry,outdoor activities, and traveling.

Elvis Menayese

Elvis Menayese of Cardiff, Wales, reports on the issues of race and equity in Charlotte, North Carolina, for NPR affiliate WFAE. Before teaming up with the WFAE, Menayese became one of the first Knight Summer Fellows interns for the Queens University News Service. As a fellow, he reported on grassroots initiatives that engaged Charlotte-area university students to mobilize vaccinations for COVID-19 among populations with “vaccine hesitancy,” including groups with historic distrust for government programs. He earned his bachelor’s degree in English Literature and Multimedia Storytelling with a concentration in Journalism. During his time at Queens, he was awarded “The Spirit of Community” award by Queens Knight School in recognition of his journalism work done throughout the community of Charlotte. Before transferring to Queens, Menayese attended Stetson University and competed as a collegiate athlete for their men’s soccer program where he was named to the ASUN All-Freshman team recognizing superior play from freshman student-athletes. As a reporter, Menayese continues to devote his time to covering underrepresented communities within the Queen City.