Columbia Journalism School and Nikkei Inc. have named Grace Xinlin Jiang as the 2024-25 Nikkei Scholar. The $100,000 scholarship is awarded annually to an exceptional journalism school candidate who is a resident of Asia and plans to specialize in data or business reporting. Nikkei Inc. is the parent company of the Financial Times, the publisher of the Nikkei and Nikkei Asia.
"Because of this scholarship, I have the chance to get the best journalism education in the world;' Jiang said. "Receiving this award has motivated me to hold myself to the highest standards. I'm committed to amplifying the voices of underrepresented communities and inspiring others with the passion and knowledge I gain here."
Jiang, 23, who hails from Chengdu, in China's Sichuan Province, graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2024, where she double-majored in Communication Arts and Journalism, earning a certificate in digital media analytics. While at UW-Madison, Jiang served as a research assistant for the Computational Approaches and Message Effects Research Group, worked as a student communicator at University Communications, and led as Editor-in-Chief at Madnews, a news outlet for Chinese students in Madison. Her reporting series, "Asian Hate in Madison;' garnered a first place award for individual multimedia storytelling in the 2023 MBJA Eric Sevareid Awards.
