Ashley Sloboda, BAJ'06 received a Higher Education Media Fellowship, which is administered by the Institute for Citizens & Scholars and funded by the ECMC Foundation. Her fellowship project, Future Focused, features 11 stories over six days in October. She was previously a senior reporter for The Journal Gazette in Fort Wayne, Indiana. She was selected for the Institute for Citizens & Scholars’ seventh class of Higher Education Media Fellows, a fellowship supported by the ECMC Foundation. Sloboda won third place for education reporting in the Best of Indiana Journalism Contest. The Indiana Professional Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists presented the award during its 45th annual contest awards in late April 2024.

In 2022, Sloboda received an Education Writers Association Reporting Fellowship in June for adata-driven project exploring how the national debate over how schools should approach diversity, equity and inclusion is playing out in Allen County, Indiana’s school districts, which have seen their diverse student populations grow in recent years.The project published over four Sundays beginning Oct. 30. (November 2024)