2023-2024

Sami Edge

Sami Edge covers higher education with a focus on community college for The Oregonian/Oregon Live, which is based in Portland. Edge has reported on public safety for The Santa Fe New Mexican, and wrote about K-12 schools in Idaho for the nonprofit newsroom, Idaho Education News. She was an American Press Institute community listening fellow, and is a graduate of the University of Oregon, where she edited the independent student paper, The Emerald. Born in Reno, Nevada, she plans to spend her career exploring the American West.

William Perkins

William T. Perkins is a data reporter for the Traverse City Record-Eagle in Michigan. Previously, he was a reporter at the Petoskey News-Review in northern Michigan, covering local government and environmental issues, including concerns surrounding the Enbridge Line 5 pipeline in the Great Lakes. A native of metro Detroit, Perkins holds a bachelor’s degree from Ohio University's E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, where he was a news editor at The Post, the student paper, and a Scripps Statehouse news bureau fellow reporting on state government for The Columbus Dispatch.

Arleigh Rodgers

Arleigh Rodgers covers the Indiana Legislature with an emphasis on K-12 education for The Associated Press. Before joining the AP, Rodgers was a general assignment reporter for the Las Vegas Sun, where she also reported, produced and hosted a podcast, “Heating Up,” which investigated the link between extreme heat and mental health among Las Vegas’ homeless and low-income residents. Holding a bachelor’s degree from Ithaca College, she was a multimedia reporter for the student-run paper, The Ithacan, editor of Year in Review, a magazine and host of “Re:Mixing,” a music podcast. Rodgers’ work has earned awards from the New York Press Association, the Associated Collegiate Press and the College Media Association.

Clara Bates

Clara Bates reports on gaps in the social safety net for the Missouri Independent, a nonprofit newsroom dedicated to investigative journalism. A recent graduate of Harvard University with a concentration in social studies, she also studied Russian and spent a summer in Moscow. Bates has written for Fifteen Minutes—the weekly magazine of The Harvard Crimson student paper— about a controversial congressional orientation and an early 20th-century class war among students. As an intern for Nevada Current, she wrote about laid-off convention workers and unregulated funeral homes, and while reporting on an anti-union hiring fair, Bates was ejected from a casino.

Graycen Wheeler

Graycen Wheeler reports on water issues for KOSU public radio, based in Stillwater, Oklahoma. A scientist-turned-journalist, she has written about science and technology for Symmetry, Science, Mongabay, among others, and covered local news, particularly housing and environmental issues, for the Monterey Herald, The Mercury News and Santa Cruz Local. Wheeler grew up in Norman, Oklahoma and started reporting while she was a graduate researcher at the University of Colorado Boulder. There, she wrote and edited for Science Buffs, a student-run STEM blog, and hosted a podcast, “Buffs Talk Science.” After earning a doctorate in biochemistry, Wheeler completed a master’s in science communication at the University of California, Santa Cruz. In her free time, Wheeler loves solving crossword puzzles and playing Dungeons & Dragons.

Jasper Sundeen

Jasper Kenzo Sundeen covers education and economics in the Latino community for the Yakima Herald-Republic in Yakima, Washington. Before moving to central Washington, Sundeen was an editor, writer and eventually, editor-in-chief of The Daily Californian, the student-run paper at the University of California, Berkeley and the paper of record for the Berkeley community. He has also worked as a student journalist at Dash Sports TV. Sundeen holds a bachelor’s degree in political economy and geography, and hails from Los Angeles, where he grew up playing soccer.

Lau Guzman

Lau Guzmán is a multimedia reporter, Latino Communities Lab, at The Record-Journal in Meriden, Connecticut. A recent graduate of New York University, she got into journalism by joining the staff of NYU Local, the university’s blog, writing breaking news, movie reviews, and more. Her work has also appeared in other NYU publications—Confluence, Embodied, Washington Square News and The Gallatin Review. Originally from Bogotá, Colombia, Guzmán was a NYU Gallatin Global Fellow in Urban Practice, working on a bilingual zine that focused on themes of history, Latinidad and belonging.

Michael Livingston

Michael Livingston covers four rural counties in northern Michigan for Michigan’s Interlochen Public Radio and the Traverse City Record-Eagle. A recent graduate of Central Michigan University with bachelor’s degrees in journalism and international relations, Livingston was editor-in-chief of the college newspaper, Central Michigan Life, and won multiple awards with the rest of his staff. He has interned at WCMU Public Radio/Michigan newspaper collaborations.

Sandra Sadek

Sandra Sadek reports on growth in Fort Worth, Texas and the communities impacted by it for the Fort Worth Report, a nonprofit news organization. Previously, Sadek reported local news for the Community Impact Newspaper in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and was the interim news editor of The Fort Stockton Pioneer newspaper in West Texas. She holds a bachelor's degree in journalism and a minor in international studies from Texas State University, where she reported for the student paper. When she’s not reporting, Sadek enjoys learning languages and training in Taekwondo.

Xcaret Nuñez

Xcaret Nuñez covers agriculture and rural communities for KOSU, an NPR affiliate in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Nuñez was a Missouri Statehouse reporter for the Missouri News Network, and has worked at KBIA, the NPR affiliate in Columbia, Missouri, as a reporter, producer and anchor where she covered the community and education beats. A first-generation college graduate, she holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a minor in religious studies from the University of Missouri-Columbia. Nuñez is originally from Yuma, Arizona, the Southwest city known as the “Lettuce Capital of the World” and “Sunniest City on Earth.”