Columbia Journalism School Celebrates 2025 Journalism Day
The awards highlight excellence in journalism throughout the Class of 2025.
Today, Columbia Journalism School marked its annual Journalism Day, celebrating student achievements and honoring exceptional journalism ahead of Graduation on May 21.
The event featured keynote speaker Katie Drummond, Global Editor at WIRED, for the 2025 Pringle Lecture. Drummond represented the publication, chosen for its coverage of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
Cecilia Reyes, a senior reporter at Business Insider, received the Meyer “Mike” Berger Award for her reporting on illegal evictions. The KFF Health News team was honored with the Paul Tobenkin Memorial Award for a series examining how systemic racism contributes to health disparities among Black Americans.
Pulitzer Traveling Fellowships
To honor Joseph Pulitzer’s legacy, top Journalism School graduates are given the opportunity to produce groundbreaking reporting around the world through the prestigious Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship.
These students are given funding to report from abroad, advancing international journalism and global storytelling. Congratulations to the 2025 winners:
- Karen Lindell (Arts & Culture)
- Vito Emanuel
- Johnny Sturgeon
- Justine Landis-Hanley
- Riddhi Setty (Valedictorian)
Student Awards
In addition to these honors, the following student awards were presented:
The Jean Anderson Awards
- Ryan Green, Climate
- Julianna Abuzzahab, Climate (Honorable Mention)
- Diba Mohtasham, Local
- Shalina Xufang Cao, Local (Honorable Mention)
- Jessica Shuran Yu, Social Justice
- Charlene Lin, Social Justice (Honorable Mention)
The Nona Balakian Award
- Carolina Abbott Galvao
Best M.A. Thesis
- Diba Mohtasham, Best M.A. Thesis
- Alexandra Markovich. (Honorable Mention)
- Chris Caurla, (Honorable Mention)
The Brown/Tow Award for Excellence in Computational Journalism
- Surbhi Sharma
- Callum Foote, Honorable
- Darryl Laiu, Honorable
The Campbell Award
- Subhanjana Das
The duPont/Judy F. Crichton Award
- Naeem Amarsy, duPont Documentary
- Natalie Elaine Ruiz-Pérez, duPont Documentary
- Johnny Sturgeon, duPont Video
The Phillip Greer Memorial Scholarship Awards
- Sorina Szakacs, Greer M.A.
- Jake Angelo, Greer M.S.
Arthur J. Harris Memorial Prize
- Olivia Obichukwu Ndubuisi
The Fred M. Hechinger Education Journalism Award
- Julie Haoning Zhu
The Journalism Editorial Award
- Monét Guilbeau
Lynton Fellowships in Book Writing
- Anvee Bhutani
- Alexandra Markovich
- Kate Taylor
The Peter Keller Prize for Editing
- Martina Di Licosa
The Joan Konner Prize
- Chelsea Rose Casabona
The Melvin Mencher Prize
- Justine Landis-Hanley
The Morton Mintz Fellowships
- Abiose Adams
- Chris Caurla
The Henry N. Taylor Award
- Christiana Alexakis
James A. Wechsler Memorial Awards
- Claudia Gohn, Weschler International
- Ryan Green, Weschler Local
- Riddhi Setty, Weschler National
- Justine Landis-Hanley, Weschler National
Louis Winnick Prize
- Ana Olympe Castelainv