Columbia Journalism School Alumni and Current Students Chosen for FASPE Ethics Fellowship

Ismaël El Bou-Cottereau, '25 M.S.; Tannu Jain, '26 M.A. Science; Jake Klingensmith, '27 M.S. Journalism/Computer Science; Marsha McLeod, '18 M.S. Stabile; and Riddhi Setty, '25 M.S. Stabile are 5 of the 14 Fellows chosen for the 2026 Journalism Program of the Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics (FASPE).

Now in its sixteenth year, FASPE annually grants 80-90 Fellowships to graduate students and early-career professionals in the fields of Business, Clergy, Design & Technology, Journalism, Law, and Medicine. Fellows participate in a two-week program in Germany and Poland, which uses the conduct of professionals in Nazi-occupied Europe as an initial framework for approaching ethical responsibility in the professions today.

The FASPE curriculum takes advantage of the power of place with daily seminars and dialogue at sites of historic importance, often specific to each profession. The experience of the Journalism Fellows is enhanced by traveling alongside the Clergy and Medical Fellows, who—in formal and informal settings—consider together how ethical constructs and norms in their respective professions align and differ.

“We are living in a fraught moment when professionals face crucial ethical choices that in some instances are reminiscent of choices professionals faced in Nazi Germany. FASPE’s emphasis on examining why so many professionals made poor choices, how we might identify with their decision-making, and the horrific consequences of their choices helps to instill in professionals a rigorous and reflective approach that is valuable at any time, but particularly in a perilous moment like this one,” said Noah Bookbinder, FASPE’s CEO.

The 2026 Fellowship will take place in Germany and Poland over the course of two weeks this summer. The Journalism Program will be led by Sheila S. Coronel, Toni Stabile Professor of Professional Practice in Investigative Journalism and Director of the Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism at Columbia Journalism School, and Mark Lukasiewicz

Dean of the School of Communication and Adjunct assistant professor of Journalism, media studies, and public relations at Hofstra University.

El Bou-Cottereau, Jain, Klingensmith, McLeod, and Setty join a diverse group of 84 FASPE Fellows across all six programs who were chosen through a competitive process that drew over 1,400 applicants from across the U.S. and the world. FASPE covers all program costs, including travel, food and lodging.

FASPE Fellows become members of a community of nearly 1,000 alumni. Through an annual reunion conference, leadership-development workshops, ethics symposia hosted in partnership with major academic and industry institutions, continued trips to ethically significant historical sites, and alumni writing, including in the Auschwitz Memorial and Museum’s Memoria Magazine, FASPE maintains long-term relationships with its Fellows in order to sustain a commitment to ethical behavior and to provide a forum for continued dialogue. Through FASPE’s Ethical Tensions Conversations, for example, alumni reflect upon and discuss the vital professional ethical issues of our own day in the spirit of open inquiry.   

To learn more about FASPE and its programs, visit www.faspe-ethics.org.

About Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics (FASPE)
FASPE is a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote ethical leadership and responsibility among professionals beginning with recognition of the influence that professionals have on all aspects of society. Its distinctive methodology examines the behavior and motivations of the professionals who enabled and enacted Nazi policies to establish the importance and urgency of self-awareness, professionalism, and ethical leadership today.