Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship

Every year on Journalism Day, top-ranked Master’s students are awarded the Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship, providing them with the funds to report on the ground about critical issues impacting the global community. 

Four fellowships are given to support reporting on people, politics and community issues on every scale — from local to international. The fifth fellowship is designated for an outstanding graduate who wishes to specialize in arts criticism.

Established by Joseph Pulitzer in his will, the fellowship intended to empower students graduating with the “highest honor” to “spend a year in Europe, to study the social, political and moral conditions of the people, and the character and principles of the European press.”

As the School has evolved, so too has this program -- and the fellowship remains an invaluable opportunity that now allows recipients the freedom to travel and report from anywhere in the world. 

Sample the Work of Recent Recipients

“Private forums show Canadian doctors struggle with euthanizing vulnerable patients.” 

With support rom the fellowship, Angie Wang, '18 M.S. published an investigation in the Associated Press. Her reporting revealed that in Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, many who chose euthanasia due to unbearable pain — but who were not terminally ill — lived in the province's poorest areas. Wang is now a News Editor at the Associated Press.

“She Had Thoughts of Harming Her Baby. To Treat Her, Doctors Kept Them Together.”  

Chloe Shakin, '22 M.S., traveled to the U.K. after receiving the fellowship, spending a year reporting on mental health care. Her critical narrative feature, published in the New York Times, revealed how mother-and-baby units in Britain treat women with postpartum psychosis. Shakin’s piece was named a “Great Read” for October 9, 2024, by the Times."

“El Salvador’s Lonely Bitcoin Experiment: ‘It’s Either the Biggest Failure or the Biggest Con.’”

Traveling to El Salavdor, Sabrina Escobar Miranda, '21 M.S., utilized her fellowship to analyze the impact Bitcoin had on the country a year after a law was passed establishing the crypto as legal currency. As Escobar Miranda wrote in her exclusive piece, published in Barron’s, she found that the crypto “isn’t working as advertised.”

“America Redefined”

In the wake of the pandemic and racial reckoning after George Floyd's death, Rita Omokha, '20 M.S., traveled the country to explore her grief amid police brutality and to share unheard stories lost in the media frenzy. Her collection from 10 cities was published in ELLE Magazine in 2021.

This journey inspired her recently published book, “Resist,” about young Black activists from 1920 to 2020.

• Rita Omokha's on MSNBC"s Morning Joe to discuss how 'Resist' charts the history of Black youth activism. 
• Rita Omokha - Resist: How a Century of Young Black Activists Shaped America

“Tom of Finland Hitches a Ride into the Mainstream”

Awarded the fellowship’s art criticism grant, Zachary Tafoya, ‘20 M.S., traveled to Helsinki, Finland, to explore and comment on Tom of Finland’s erotic artistic legacy.

Tafoya, an art and music writer from Southern California, published his insights in Frieze Magazine, highlighting the impact of Finland's most iconic artist on contemporary culture.

“Why South Africans Are Talking About Land Exploitation” 

Reporting from South Africa with his fellowship award, Jon Allsop, '17 M.S., published multiple pieces, largely examining how the country is still impacted by and reckoning with apartheid a quarter-century after its end. For The Nation, Allsop’s piece “Why South Africans Are Talking About Land Expropriation,” revealed how Black farmers in the country own small fractions of their native farmland.

"Poems in Stone: The Parthenon Marbles and the New Nationalism"

Gabrielle Bruney, '15 M.A. Arts & Culture, covered the debate over the Parthenon Marbles on whether they should remain in the British Museum or be returned to Greece, where they were created as part of her Traveling Fellowship. 

Bruney recently won the 2024 “Writing the City” award.

"Veterans And Anti-War Activists Make Peace With Vietnam -- And Each Other"

Five decades after the Vietnam War, Robyn Malcolm, '16 M.S., covered a journey of reconciliation and understanding among veterans and anti-war activists who, decades after the conflict, have returned to Vietnam to reflect on their pasts and forge new connections in "Veterans And Anti-War Activists Make Peace With Vietnam -- And Each Other."