Three students earn reporting fellowships
Three Boston University graduate students have been selected by BU and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting for international health reporting this summer as part of the center’s growing Campus Consortium Partnership of 16 institutions of higher education.
Kate Petcosky-Kulkarni (SHA '08, SPH '17), Nikita Sampath (COM '16) and Caitlin Bawn (COM '16) will spend several weeks at the Pulitzer Center’s Washington, D.C. headquarters and an additional several weeks on their reporting trips. They will be mentored by Center-supported journalists and staff, focusing on such issues as the relationship between HIV and cancer in Africa, the impact of global warming on healthcare in Bangladesh and the plight of the disabled in India.
These paid fellowships are part of an ongoing collaboration between the Pulitzer Center and the Boston University Program on Global Health Storytelling, a cross-campus collaboration of faculty and resources from BU’s College of Communication (COM), School of Public Health (SPH) and Center for Global Health and Development (CGHD).
Last year, four students received Pulitzer Fellowships and traveled to Cuba, Mali, Zanzibar and Nepal on reporting trips. Their work has been published by The Guardian, National Public Radio, and on the Pulitzer Center website.
The BU Program on Global Health Storytelling has organized several events focused on the intersection of journalism and public-health, particularly at times of disasters. A year-later retrospective on the Haitian earthquake brought together journalists and aid workers to discuss the ethics and logistics of crises reporting. Last year New York Times columnist Nick Kristof spoke about the first thousand days of a child’s life. Previously, award-winning journalists Stephanie Sinclair and Cynthia Gorney discussed child marriages worldwide, based on their reporting for National Geographic, VII photo agency, and the Pulitzer Center.
“We were thrilled with the level of interest and the high caliber of the applicants for this summer’s internship,” said COM professor, Anne Donohue, who with fellow journalism professor Elizabeth Mehren and CGHD professors Jennifer Beard and Monica Onyango directed these events and internships at BU. “We hope we can expand this type of opportunity for more students in the near future.”
Meet the fellows
Caitlin Bawn is currently in the College of Communication MS in Journalism program, focusing on International Reporting. She is also an intern at the New England Center for Investigative Reporting, and a contributing writer for Words in the Bucket — a news publication dedicated to promoting human rights and gender equality. Caitlin will be going to Botswana to report on the growth of cancer, focusing particularly on the relationship between cancer and HIV.
Nikita Sampath is a graduate student in the COM Journalism Department, focusing on photojournalism. She will be traveling to Bangladesh to report on the impact of global warming and rising sea levels on hospitals and other health care services.
Kate Petcosky-Kulkarni is an MPH candidate at Boston University, focusing on global health. Originally from upstate New York, Kate studied business at BU (she is a proud double Terrier), and spent a semester researching urban development in Argentina, China, and India. In 2010, she completed a Master’s in Food Studies from New York University, where she explored the culture and constructs of food systems in the US and abroad. In addition to pursuing her MPH, Kate is the Director of the Office of Proposal Development at BU School of Medicine. As a Pulitzer Fellow, Kate will be reporting on the experiences of disabled individuals in Mumbai, India, examining challenges in accessibility, as well as cultural views of disability.
