ONA13 Student Newsroom selects 20 promising digital journalists

By / Jul 24, 2013

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Online News Association, the world’s largest membership organization of digital journalists, is pleased to announce the members of the ONA13 Student Newsroom, chosen from over 100 applicants across the globe, who will provide intensive coverage of the Online News Association Conference & Awards Banquet, October 17-20 in Atlanta.

For the fourth year running, Google will provide a $30,000 scholarship to cover registration, travel and lodging expenses for 38 students and mentors attending ONA13.

Mentored by distinguished working digital journalists and journalism professors, the mix of graduate and undergraduate students will bring a rich, varied set of multimedia skills and fresh perspective to conference coverage, using a range of digital formats and styles, including interactive text and graphics, live blogging, slideshows, audio and video.

“The talented group of students chosen this year follow in the footsteps of great Newsroom alumni,” said Jane McDonnell, ONA Executive Director. “We know they’ll do a stellar job covering the conference and we hope to see them make their mark on the industry in years to come.”

Under the direction of Committee Co-Chairs Michelle Johnson of Boston University and Katia Hetter of CNN.com, the student team will be getting right to work. In the weeks leading up to ONA13, they’ll give attendees a comprehensive preview, including details on session topics and interviews with conference presenters and speakers.

The students are:

Brandi Bottalico, Towson University
Tercius Bufete, California State University, Chico
Anthony Cave, Florida International University
Beth Cortez-Neavel, University of Texas at Austin Graduate School of Journalism
Graham Clark, University of Southern California
Annie Daniel, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Laura Davison, University of Missouri
Brittney Figueira, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Crystal Garner, The University of Southern Mississippi
Sean Greene, University of California Berkeley
Nikolas Iubel, Columbia University
Sandhya Kambhampati, E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University
Max Knoblauch, Hofstra University
Arik Ligeti, Carleton University
Avni Nijhawan, University of California, Berkeley
Allison Prang, University of Missouri-Columbia
Luke Rafferty, S.I. School of Public Communications at Syracuse University
Beena Raghavendran, University of Maryland – College Park
Madeline Ross, Columbia University
Gabrielle A. Wright, New York University, Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute

The mentors are:

Peg Achterman, Northwest University
Gavin Adamson, Ryerson University
Jeremy Bowers, NPR
Emily Chow, Washington Post
Laura Davis, L.A. Times
Joanna Hernandez, CUNY Graduate School of Journalism
Shazna Nessa, John S. Knight Journalism Fellowship at Stanford University Fellow
Caroline Que, Dyno Media
Cindy Rodriguez, Emerson College
Nancy Sharkey, University of Arizona
Leezel Tanglao, ABCNews.com
Tiffini Theisen, University of Tampa
Jill Van Wyke, Drake University
Curt Chandler, Penn State University
Sarah Hoye, CNN
Kathleen Culver, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Follow @ONAconf and #ONA13 on Twitter for updates.