Leah Johnson one of nine Howard trip winners
Journalism junior Leah Johnson is one of nine college students who are winners of the annual Roy W. Howard National Collegiate Reporting Competition sponsored by the Scripps Howard Foundation.
The award is a guided, nine-day study trip to Japan beginning May 21. IU’s Roy W. Howard Professor of Practice Joseph Coleman will lead the expenses-paid trip. A former Associated Press bureau chief in Tokyo, Coleman joined the faculty in 2009 and teaches a reporting class that takes IU journalism students on a reporting trip to Tokyo and Hiroshima, Japan.
“These students, among the strongest news reporters at campuses across the country, represent the future of journalism,” Coleman said. “It will be a pleasure to accompany the group to Japan on a trip aimed at helping fellows develop a global perspective in their work.”
The nine winners, whose entries represent print, broadcast and online media, were chosen for the high quality of their work, an essay about their interest in international affairs and letters of recommendation.
Johnson is studying journalism and African-American and African diaspora studies with a certificate in political and civic engagement at Indiana University. She previously has reported on issues of race, class and identity as an intern for WPLN Public Radio, an NPR member station in Nashville, Tennessee, and EL Gazette in London. She reports and produces for WFIU, the NPR member station in Bloomington, and is a multimedia reporter for the Indiana Daily Student. She is co-president of American Student Radio.
The competition, established in 1984 in cooperation with Indiana University Journalism, honors the memory of the journalist who led Scripps Howard Newspapers from 1922‐1953 and United Press from 1912‐1920. This year marks the 10th year that the Scripps Howard Foundation has awarded the study tour to Japan to competition winners.
“The extraordinary number of strong entrants we saw this year bodes well for our profession’s next generation,” said Mike Philipps, president and CEO of the Scripps Howard Foundation. “We are especially heartened by their tremendous interest in international reporting and desire to carry forth Roy Howard’s pioneering legacy.”
Travel includes excursions primarily in the Kansai region cities of Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe. Included in the trip is a visit to Hiroshima, the first city in world history to be devastated by the atomic bomb, and the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and Park, as well as Tokyo.
The other eight winners are:
- Alexandra Arriaga, a junior studying journalism and Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies at the University of Wisconsin.
- Khadejah Bennett, a sophomore studying journalism at North Carolina A&T State University.
- Xueying Chen, a junior studying English and economics at Wellesley College.
- Olivia Hitchcock, a junior studying journalism at Ohio University.
- Sophia Kunthara, a junior studying journalism with an emphasis in print/digital media with a minor in global studies at Arizona State University.
- Benjamin McKnight III, a sophomore studying print journalism at Morgan State University.
- Kelly Meyerhofer, a junior studying journalism and political science at Marquette University.
- Anne Nickoloff, a junior studying English and psychology with minors in creative writing, music and film at Case Western Reserve University.