Kallejhay Terrelonge may have been 1700 miles away in Boston, but the damage from Hurricane Melissa to her home country of Jamaica last year affected her deeply – and then led to a prestigious reporting fellowship from the Pulitzer Center.

“What stayed with me most was not only the destruction itself but what happened after,” recalled Terrelonge, a Master of Science in journalism student at Boston University’s College of Communication. “In the weeks and months following the hurricane, I noticed that much of the public attention naturally focused on the immediate disaster response. But, I became interested in a different question: What happens after the cameras leave and communities begin the long process of rebuilding?”

The question turned into discussions with COM professors Maggie Mulvihill, Meghan Irons and David Abel. The discussions led to a thesis, and eventually a Pulitzer Center fellowship awarded in early May.

The fellowship will allow Terrelonge to follow members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church from the New England Conference as they travel to Jamaica to assist communities still recovering from the category 5 hurricane.

“I hope to explore what recovery looks like long after the immediate crisis has passed,” she says. “The reporting will also examine the intersection of climate change, disaster recovery, public health and community resilience, focusing on the long-term impacts that often receive less attention once emergency response efforts end.”

Boston University’s College of Communication and School for Public Health, working through the University’s Global Program for Public Health Storytelling, have a long-standing partnership with the Pulitzer Center fellowship program. 

Athira Suresh, a recent graduate of the SPH Master of Public Health program, also was named a 2026 fellow. She will return home to India and report on maternal mental healthcare in the state of Kerala, often cited as a model for public health success with the lowest maternal mortality rate in the country – a statistic Suresh suspects may not tell the full story.

After her reporting on the hurricane’s impact is complete, Terrelonge plans to continue “elevating underrepresented voices” through her journalism.

“I am especially interested in stories at the intersection of social issues, public health, climate change, human rights, politics, crime and violence,” she says. “I am also deeply interested in accountability reporting, examining how decisions are made, how public resources are used and whether institutions and government systems serve the people they are meant to represent.”