Nine students are joining four new Fellows on journalism projects in the fall

The O’Brien Fellowship in Public Service Journalism has picked the students who will join incoming reporters Samantha Shapiro, Lauren Lindstrom, Lee Hawkins and John Diedrich on four nine-month investigations into issues involving education, housing, race and gun violence.

Those student reporters include seven undergraduates in journalism at the Diederich College of Communication at Marquette University. Joining them are two students in the Communication Master’s Program at Marquette.

The undergraduates in the eleventh O’Brien cohort are Andrew Amouzou, Skyler Chun, Maria Crenshaw, Hannah Hernandez, John Leuzzi, Julianna Okosun, and Ben Schultz. The graduate students are Ziyang Fu and Alexandra Rivera Grant.

Andrew Amouzou

Amouzou is a rising senior who is eager to get started with the O’Brien Fellowship program. As a journalism major, he has been able to experience the world of journalism right away through classwork and with the Marquette Wire student media organization that he will lead starting next fall. He looks forward to growing his skills, this time in investigative reporting. He believes being able to work on a podcast series will help him navigate through a new route of multimedia journalism that he is sure to learn a lot from.

Skyler Chun

Chun is a rising senior studying journalism and international affairs, with a minor in digital media. She grew up in Aiea, Hawaii, on the island of Oahu. She served as the managing editor of the Marquette Journal this year and was formerly the executive Arts & Entertainment editor for the Marquette Wire. She loves telling stories that explore new perspectives and open up conversations, and she’s looking forward to gaining more experience in public service journalism through this fellowship.

Maria Crenshaw

Crenshaw is a rising senior at Marquette University majoring in journalism and minoring in digital media and history. She reported for the Marquette Wire on the projects team and focused on investigative work there. During her time at the Wire she reported on a variety of topics such as food insecurity, sexual assault, the Marquette University Police Department, and COVID-19. As an O’Brien intern, Crenshaw hopes to gain more experience in the professional newsroom and hopes to push herself to create impactful journalistic work with the guidance of her fellow.

Ziyang Fu

Fu is a second-year graduate student studying Digital Communication Strategies at Marquette. Fu says he believes in “nothing but truth and justice” and he is eager to promote an ethical communication industry. He worked with 2021–22 O’Brien Fellow Sari Lesk on a project regarding small businesses in Milwaukee and their access to capital. He expects to take a deep dive into investigative reporting and seek solutions to pressing issues.

Hannah Hernandez

Hernandez is a rising senior from Milwaukee, WI. She is studying journalism with a double minor in writing-intensive English and Spanish. She currently works as a news reporter for the Marquette Wire and will intern at Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in the summer of 2022. Hernandez says she wants, through journalism, to highlight misrepresented communities that are often overlooked.

John Leuzzi

Leuzzi is a rising senior from Mount Laurel, NJ, studying journalism and digital media. He has worked as a sports reporter, assistant sports editor, and sports audio producer at the Marquette Wire. This past year at the Wire, he served as the executive sports editor. He recently took home gold at the Milwaukee Press Club Gridiron Dinner for Online: Best Sports Story for his feature article on former Marquette women’s basketball and now Connecticut Sun guard Natisha Hiedeman. Leuzzi says he is looking forward, through the fellowship, to pursuing stories that make an impact within a community.

Julianna Okosun

Okosun is pursuing a BA in Journalism with a minor in Digital Media (2023), and a MA in Digital Communication Strategies (2024), as a part of Marquette’s Accelerated Degree Program. She was born and raised in Copenhagen, Denmark, and moved to the United States in 2020 to play for Marquette’s Women’s Basketball Team. For the Marquette Wire she has worked as an audio producer for Marquette radio, creating weekly audio packages and hosting the podcast A&E Breakdown. Okosun is passionate about working in collaboration with others and applying a social justice lens to her work.

Alexandra Rivera Grant

Rivera Grant is an incoming first-year graduate student studying digital communication strategies. She will be graduating in May 2022 with a bachelor’s in digital media from Marquette. She is currently the Marquette Wire’s first editor of diversity and inclusion and has previously worked on a late-night entertainment show for three years prior. Her passion has always been about people. She believes there are many perspectives to be shared and she wants to help people feel seen.

Ben Schultz

Schultz is a senior journalism student from Wauwatosa, WI, a Milwaukee suburb. He has worked at the Marquette Wire as a sports reporter. Schultz says his interest in journalism came from a passion for writing, sports and stats and being able to incorporate them all together. Upon graduation, expected in December 2022, Schultz hopes to work as a print reporter writing data-driven stories or covering sports at the collegiate or prep level.

Related:
Announcing the 2022–23 O’Brien Fellows
Catching up with Diana Dombrowski

Read more about our student reporting internship program on our website.

Meet the 2022–23 O’Brien Fellowship Reporting Interns was originally published in O'Brien Fellowship on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Journalists will report for nine months on homeless youths, gun violence, the intergenerational impact of racism and childhood trauma on Black American families, and dangerously unsafe rental housing.

By Rachel Ryan & Ziyang Fu

Four journalists will join the Perry and Alicia O’Brien Fellowship in Public Service Journalism in August 2022.

The J. William and Mary Diederich College of Communication at Marquette University announced today that the incoming fellows for the 2022–23 academic year are:

• Samantha Shapiro, independent journalist. She’s been a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine since 2005.
• Lauren Lindstrom, independent journalist. She recently reported on housing and health at the Charlotte Observer as a Report For America corps member.
• Lee Hawkins, independent journalist. He’s a special correspondent for American Public Media and a former reporter at The Wall Street Journal.
• John Diedrich, reporter and editor with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s investigative team.

Since 2013, the O’Brien Fellowship has helped journalists produce in-depth public-service journalism projects for their home news organizations or other outlets. This program was the result of an $8.3 million gift from Peter and Patricia Frechette in honor of Patricia’s parents, Marquette alumni Perry and Alicia O’Brien. In 2021, the Fellowship received an additional $5 million from the Frechette Family Foundation to expand the program’s reach. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel co-founded the Fellowship.

The Fellowship seeks projects aimed at exposing injustice, uncovering potential solutions and igniting change. Journalists propose the topics.

“We look forward to assisting these journalists on their ambitious projects and helping train the next generation of in-depth reporters,” said Dave Umhoefer, O’Brien Fellowship director. “In line with our program goals, our fellows will be reporting deeply on homelessness, gun violence, the intergenerational impact of racism and childhood trauma on Black American families, and dangerously unsafe rental housing.”

Fellows receive a $70,000 salary stipend and additional funding. Sponsoring news organizations get an in-depth reporting project with the potential for change and a summer intern following the fellowship. O’Brien Fellows use Marquette’s O’Brien Fellowship newsroom in Milwaukee as their base, traveling widely and leading a group of Marquette student interns.

Samantha Shapiro

Shapiro is a long-form freelance writer. Her recent work for The New York Times Magazine includes a story on homeless students in New York. Her award-winning stories have been reprinted in textbooks, general interest books and syndicated internationally. Shapiro has worked as a freelancer since 2005, publishing stories in Mother Jones, Foreign Policy, ESPN, Crain’s, Slate and Wired.

Earlier in her career, she worked as a reporter at The Forward, a national outlet serving the American Jewish population, and The Stranger, an alternative bi-weekly newspaper in Seattle. Her stories have been awarded best feature from the Education Writers Association and she has been a finalist for the National Magazine Award. Shapiro graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with bachelor’s degrees in literature and history.

Lauren Lindstrom

Lindstrom is an independent journalist focusing on health and housing. As a Report for America corps member for three years at The Charlotte Observer, she wrote about the human toll of evictions during the pandemic, substandard housing conditions, and challenges to solving homelessness. Previously, she was the health reporter for The Blade in Toledo, Ohio, where she wrote about the state’s opioid crisis and childhood lead poisoning. Her reporting on local officials’ failure to ensure remedies for hazardous homes resulted in reforms by the local health department.

Lindstrom earned two Touchstone Awards from the Press Club of Toledo for her stories on long-term trauma for clergy sex abuse victims, childhood lead poisoning, and housing in Toledo. Lindstrom graduated from Northwestern University with a bachelor’s degree in journalism in 2014.

Lee Hawkins

Hawkins is producing a podcast in partnership with APM Studios, the podcast division of American Public Media (APM), and is also the author of the forthcoming book, NOBODY’S SLAVE: How Uncovering My Family’s History Set Me Free (HarperCollins 2023). In 2021, he received the Adam Clayton Powell Reporting Award from the New York Association of Black Journalists and was a finalist for the Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism. He is a four-time winner of the National Association of Black Journalists’ “Salute to Excellence” Award.

At The Wall Street Journal over 19 years, Hawkins covered a variety of assignments and education topics. He is also known for his on-camera interviews with influential newsmakers and icons. His career began in Wisconsin at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the Wisconsin State Journal. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a bachelor’s degree in political science, where he was editorial page editor of the Badger Herald student newspaper.

John Diedrich

Diedrich is an investigative reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. His most recent work includes a team investigation into deadly electrical fires in impoverished neighborhoods. In 2019, he led a team examining the long-time practice by hospitals of turning away ambulances, which can endanger patients’ lives by delaying care. His stories have won numerous national honors, including a George Polk award, Gerald Loeb Award, National Headliner Award for Public Service, and the Society of Professional Journalists’ Eugene S. Pulliam First Amendment Award.

Formerly, Diedrich covered the military and national security for the Colorado Springs Gazette and government and politics at the Kenosha News. He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with a bachelor’s degree in print journalism.

The current class of O’Brien Fellows includes independent journalist Katherine Reynolds Lewis, independent journalist Sarah Carr, the Milwaukee Business Journal’s Sari Lesk, and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Guy Boulton.

Announcing the 2022–23 O’Brien Fellows was originally published in O'Brien Fellowship on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

By Rachel Ryan

“My favorite part of being a journalist is being someone who can give people a voice, especially when no one else is listening.”

We caught up with former Marquette graduate student and O’Brien reporting intern Diana Dombrowski to reflect on her O’Brien journey and see where she is now.

While at O’Brien, Diana worked with Virginian-Pilot reporter Gary Harki on his project about the treatment of mentally ill prisoners. She also traveled to Virginia where she told the story of Virginia’s first transgender legislator. Diana went to work as a reporter at the Sheboygan Press for the USA Today Network-Wisconsin, and now covers Yonkers, NY, for The Journal News and lohud.com, a Gannett media outlet serving the New York counties of Westchester, Rockland, and Putnam, a region known as the Lower Hudson Valley.

How did the O’Brien internship help you personally or professionally as an aspiring journalist?

Diana: The program helped me quickly understand what being a working reporter would be like. Working alongside an experienced journalist, I got a lot of guidance on my reporting and writing and plenty of opportunities to dive into the project and explore different parts of it I was most interested in. I also got a great mentor and friend out of it. I still talk to my O’Brien fellow, Gary Harki, all the time and we still keep our team’s group chat alive. O’Brien guided me into a career as a reporter.

Do you have a favorite memory from your time at O’Brien? If so, please describe.

Diana: I have a lot of favorite memories of O’Brien from goofing around with our team to working on the actual project. Seeing the (jail death) database we created come together was gratifying. Our trip to Virginia with our fellow and getting to see his newsroom was also a lot of fun. I got to interview Danica Roem, the first openly transgender person elected to Virginia’s general assembly and we toured a jail and mental health facility. Some of my favorite memories are just hanging out with our team and eating hummus in our fellow’s office.

What would you tell other graduate students about the O’Brien reporting internship?

Diana: I’d tell grad students they should give O’Brien a shot — especially if they’re interested in working in the media — because it will only present more opportunities, give them a chance to meet a lot of professionals in the industry and let them play a significant role in a project that could make real change. Particularly as grad students, you have another set of skills that are important for projects like these and being part of the program will certainly give you valuable experience you can carry with you in your career.

What is your favorite part of being a journalist?

Diana: My favorite part of being a journalist is being someone who can give people a voice, especially when no one else is listening. I also enjoy talking to so many different people and writing about such a wide variety of things. I love that being a journalist means you’re constantly learning.

Responses have been edited for length and clarity.

To learn more about the student experience at the O’Brien Fellowship, visit our website.

To apply, fill out the online application >>

Explore the Diederich College of Communication Master’s programs >>

Catching up with Diana Dombrowski was originally published in O'Brien Fellowship on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

By Rachel Ryan

Climate denial didn’t sprout out of the atmosphere fully formed, said Katie Worth, author and former O’Brien Fellow (2018–19).

“It appeared because there was a real concerted effort and a real campaign to promote doubt by the fossil fuel industry.”

Worth spoke Monday at a virtual roundtable discussion on the state of climate change education, the topic of Worth’s newly released book, Miseducation: How Climate Change is Taught in America. Columbia Global Reports and The GroundTruth Project arranged the event.

There are various reasons why the problems of misinformation in climate change education persist.

Worth and Alex Halliday, founding dean of Columbia Climate School and director of Earth Institute at Columbia University, agreed that one of those reasons is fragmentation in the American education system. Academic standards, which inform what children are required to learn each year, are haphazard across the U.S., said Worth. That means in some areas, there is no requirement to teach about climate change.

According to Halliday, this puts the U.S. at a major disadvantage for combating the issue. Succinct academic standards could help. However, they still aren’t foolproof.

“Tell kids it’s real, it’s us, it’s bad and that there is hope,” Worth said.

Worth mentioned that academic standards don’t define how something should be learned or what resources should be used.

This can mean teachers are relying on online lesson plans created by monied interests, or figuring it out on their own, her reporting found.

Another issue is textbooks. During the discussion, Worth pointed to the theory of evolution as an example of a similarly contested topic in education. At the time, many textbook makers removed evolution from their books and teachers were careful to tiptoe around the issue. Now, this is happening with climate change. Textbook makers know it’s a sticky issue and so they’re careful with how they talk about it, often using doubtful language, said Worth.

“We think of textbooks as these authoritative sources…and then you actually look at what is actually written in them about this really sensitive subject and it’s not the truth,” Worth said. “That to me is really shocking.”

Tensions in schools are an additional concern. Worth said that in her reporting, she talked to a 6th grade science teacher, who took care to teach kids about climate. One day the teacher’s students came in and questioned why they were learning about it. Then, they left their science class to go to history, where the teacher was sharing climate denialism videos with the students. These opposing views are what further perpetuate climate change denial, said Worth.

But there are successful ways to teach climate change. Worth mentioned four factors that emerged from her reporting and in talking with teachers.

Tell kids it’s real, it’s us, it’s bad and that there is hope, she said.

“If a kid walks out of their education knowing those four facts, then they’re doing better than most adults in this country,” Worth said.

And it can’t just be all about doom and gloom either. Kids need to know there are solutions and they have a role in them, Worth emphasized.

Halliday echoed Worth, saying that young people are the ones that have the real focus on trying to do something about climate change, which is why we need to continue educating them.

The younger generations are “going to feel the most of the climate crisis going forward” and “they’ve got more to lose than anybody,” Halliday said.

Other speakers that participated in the discussion included Lee Bollinger, president of Columbia University; Raney Aronson-Rath, executive producer of FRONTLINE; Jimmy So, editor of Columbia Global Reports; Charles Sennott, CEO of The GroundTruth Project; Nicholas Lemann, director of Columbia Global Reports and dean emeritus at Columbia Journalism School (moderator).

You can watch the full event here >>

Denial of climate change implanted in American education system was originally published in O'Brien Fellowship on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Apply for the O’Brien Fellowship starting Dec.1. Applications will be accepted through Jan. 21. Learn more about how you can apply.

By Ziyang Fu and Rachel Ryan

Funding isn’t the only answer to fixing the digital divide. It’s just as much about execution. That was the consensus of panelists at Tuesday’s virtual broadband event aimed at finding solutions to the problem.

“If we are not really aggressive and thoughtful in our approach, we run the risk of putting people who are already disconnected…further left behind,” said panelist Vickie Robinson, general manager of Microsoft Corp.’s Airband Initiative.

The panel was hosted by Fellow and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Rick Barrett and former O’Brien reporting intern Kelli Arseneau.

The event was organized by the Journal Sentinel, the O’Brien Fellowship in Public Service Journalism at Marquette University and the USA TODAY NETWORK — Wisconsin.

Here are four takeaway from their discussion:

1. There needs to be better data and mapping.

Part of the way to solve the digital divide is to figure out who isn’t connected and prioritize getting broadband to those areas, said Shirley Bloomfield, CEO of NTCA –The Rural Broadband Association. That requires looking at the data. But it doesn’t help that some of the data is flawed.

If you compare the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) data with Microsoft’s — which focuses on the number of people actually using high-speed internet — you see a different picture, said Robinson. FCC data indicates that Milwaukee County is 100% covered, Robinson said, but if you examine Microsoft’s data, there are just under 400,000 people who aren’t connected.

The current maps are about a useful as a cave drawing, said Barry Orton, professor emeritus, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

In other words, the broadband maps aren’t good enough.

And having a better sense of the map and data for coverage helps officials dictate spending on the issue.

“We cannot afford to sit back and wait for the FCC,” said Rebecca Cameron Valcq, chairperson of the Wisconsin Public Service Commission.

2. There cannot be a one size fits all approach.

There is no one unified solution that can solve every household’s internet problem. In Wisconsin, some residents cannot get fiber access because the cranberry bogs in the state make it impossible to bury fibers in some places.

Even though fiber is currently the best internet technology out there, sometimes residents need to turn to other solutions like fixed wireless or satellite because of their specific circumstances.

Communities that are struggling to get internet access are not fighting alone. Some companies and non-profit organizations like the Vilas County Economic Development Corp. are dedicated to exploring the best strategy for residents to get internet depending on where they are.

“Because we have a number of different internet service providers, we don’t really have a one size fits all kind of solution available. So, we’re working with each of the different communities to help define what is the best strategy for them, and then to work together with the ISPs (internet service providers)…to accomplish that,” said Jim Tuckwell, the chairman of the Vilas County Economic Development Corp.

3. Affordability and lack of options is a barrier to service.

Bridging the digital divide is not only about accessibility, but also the affordability of people who are in need of the internet. Based on an offline report released by EducationSuperHighway, 49% of the Wisconsin population doesn’t have broadband due to affordability, Valcq mentioned.

Jim Paine, the mayor of the City of Superior, said the government there is starting an open-access network where the residents can switch their service at any time if they don’t like it. Compared to the private sector, which can cost residents up to hundreds of dollars for high-speed internet access, the public sector option offered by Superior keeps the price down to a $55 maximum per month, making internet more accessible to every household.

“Broadband is not a luxury, it is a necessity… for everyday living,” said Valcq.

4. This is a hurry up and wait situation.

Broadband access isn’t something that’s going to be fixed overnight, and there are a number of reasons for that. When funding is allocated, it takes a while for it to move down the line into action.

Bloomfield said she doesn’t expect to see money from the federal infrastructure bill going out the door and onto the ground until the first part of 2023. That’s because people will be contesting things, rules must be written, and states have to figure out distribution based on their underserved areas.

Supply chain issues also slow down the process. Keith Gabbard, CEO of Peoples Rural Telephone Cooperative in McKee, Kentucky, ordered fiber optic cables a couple of months ago. The estimated wait time is 12 months.

“If we had all the fiber we ordered sitting in our warehouse, we would be building a lot more, a lot more quickly,” Gabbard said.

There’s also an issue with getting workers trained so that officials can put people on the ground to dig trenches and climb poles.

Factoring in these supply chain issues to existing funding is also critical to making sure no one gets left behind, said Robinson.

Listen to the full panel discussion here.

Rick Barrett was an O’Brien Fellow in 2020–21. He investigated the lack of access to high-speed internet in rural areas and urban areas of Wisconsin. Reporting interns Kelli Arseneau and Chris Miller assisted Barrett in the project.

Read the reporting >>

Four Takeaways from “Digital Divide” on Internet Service Gaps was originally published in O'Brien Fellowship on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

O’Brien Fellowship provided James tools and resources to dig deep and seek solutions

By Ziyang Fu

Expose injustice and ignite change through the O’Brien Fellowship in Public Service Journalism. Apply now through Jan. 21 for the 2022–23 fellowships.

After experiencing and writing about racial issues in Milwaukee for decades, journalist James Causey said he was sick and tired of the systematic oppression.

He was eager to make a change, come up with solutions, and facilitate outcomes to fight racial inequality.

The result was “Milwaukee’s Promise,” Causey’s reporting project when he was a Fellow at O’Brien Fellowship in Public Service Journalism in 2019-’20.

“This city needs to change right now…” said Causey, a journalist at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “We can’t wait another decade or two in order to see change.”

In the 1960s and ’70s, cities like Milwaukee, Detroit, and Cleveland held out the promise to African-Americans of good job opportunities. Numerous African-Americans came to these cities with a dream to build better lives. After the great migration, many of these jobs disappeared along with the other supports. Milwaukee became one of the worst places for racial disparities.

“If you’re a journalist of color, please apply because there is opportunity for you to do great things.”

Causey said about the O’Brien Fellowship in Public Service Journalism.

To promote change and justice, Causey used his nine-month O’Brien Fellowship to document other cities’ successful experiences and at the same time support the anti-racism practices that work in Milwaukee.

One of the struggles that African Americans are facing is education. In Nashville, Tennessee, there are Black men who go to schools and read for Black children to inspire these children’s interest in reading.

Causey saw the potential of this model and was dedicated to promoting it to more institutions and communities. In an interview with a school superintendent for Black Nouveau, a Milwaukee PBS program, several months after Causey’s O’Brien project, the superintendent showed interest and willingness to adopt the model.

“Boom, that’s instant impact,” Causey said.

Causey covered a broad range of racial issues in his O’Brien project. Other than education for African American communities, Causey also reported on efforts to combat racism and the major lack of homeownership opportunities for people of color.

Causey’s mission to combat injustice did not stop with his project at O’Brien.

Causey hosted several public forums to discuss issues raised in Milwaukee’s Promise. Partners included Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, WUWM, Milwaukee’s NPR, the Milwaukee Public Library, and Milwaukee PBS, which came together as Listen MKE. Another partner was the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, along with the O’Brien Fellowship.

All these efforts serve one purpose: to improve Milwaukee and make it a better place.

When talking about the O’Brien Fellowship, Causey mentioned he produced his best work in this experience.

“This Fellowship provided me with all the tools I needed, to really get the things I needed to get done,” Causey said.

Causey believed the opportunity of O’Brien came at a perfect time for him to take a deep dive, seek solutions, and create an impact on Milwaukee.

He emphasized that journalists of color often don’t apply to these Fellowships because they believe they can’t get it or think they don’t have the experience or they worry their company won’t give them the time off.

But, Causey said this Fellowship has taken him to a whole other level and that it can do the same for others.

“If you’re a journalist of color, please apply because there is opportunity for you to do great things,” Causey said.

“This city needs to change right now”: Fellow James Causey sought solutions for ending racism in… was originally published in O'Brien Fellowship on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

O’Brien Fellowship gave Ferral the time she needed to reveal deep problems

By Rachel Ryan

Expose injustice and ignite change through the O’Brien Fellowship in Public Service Journalism. Apply now through Jan. 21 for the 2022–23 fellowships.

Two years — that’s how long it takes on average for a sexual assault investigation in the National Guard, said reporter Katelyn Ferral (O’Brien Fellow 2019–20).

And that amount of time can be painful for assault survivors.

“Some victims I talked to really felt like the military justice process further took control away from them,” Ferral said. “They were re-victimized through the process.”

This wasn’t the only flaw Ferral found in the Guard’s sexual assault allegation process. In her year-long investigation funded by the O’Brien Fellowship, her digging revealed the Guard’s lack of accountability and messy record-keeping system.

“We found that at times sexual assault survivors or victims couldn’t get records of their own cases,” Ferral said. “Victims were waiting two years or more to get basic documents.”

The scarceness of records wasn’t only a problem for victims. It was also a problem for reporting.

Ferral, whose work was co-published in the Cap Times and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, said that she couldn’t obtain records she wanted across the entire country. In the end, the absence of information was a key finding in the investigation.

Ferral faced other challenges too.

“It (the O’Brien Fellowship) was really the boost that I needed at that point in my career to do the kind of work that I had always been wanting to do.”

Because the National Guard exists as separate independent militias, sexual assault cases are also handled differently in each state. This became a barrier for Ferral. She said that folks coming in from the outside couldn’t understand the system in the states they were entering.

“Even folks who study military justice and our military experts in general, really didn’t know anything about the Guard,” Ferral said.

So, Ferral had to dig in and become something of an expert in the topic.

And it paid off.

After writing her first story on the Wisconsin State Guard in December of 2019, a major federal report revealed that the Guard botched investigations of sexual assault and harassment. As a result, the chief of the Wisconsin National Guard, Adjunct General Donald Dunbar, resigned and was replaced.

Since then, even more attention has been given to the issue by federal lawmakers. U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) has been working on legislation to extend whistleblower protections to National Guard members, a privilege they previously hadn’t been allowed, Ferral said.

“Maybe because of what happened in 2020, but maybe in part a little bit because of my reporting, folks are starting to realize that the Guard is distinct…and therefore, it needs distinct resources, and distinct reforms and solutions to their distinct problems,” Ferral said.

For Ferral, being an O’Brien Fellow really helped her get to the root of the Guard’s problems and gave her the ability to share those findings with the larger community.

“It (the O’Brien Fellowship) was really the boost that I needed at that point in my career to do the kind of work that I had always been wanting to do,” she said.

Returning to her alma mater, Marquette University, and being able to mentor students while working on her project also meant a lot to Ferral.

And if there’s one thing Ferral took away from her reporting at O’Brien, it was recognizing how crucial it is for reporters to focus on covering the military.

“It’s just important for the journalism industry to not forget about doing that type of reporting when it comes to the military because it touches on so many issues that we continue to encounter,” Ferral said.

Fellow Katelyn Ferral’s year-long investigation uncovered systemic flaws in the National Guard’s… was originally published in O'Brien Fellowship on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

By Rachel Ryan and Ziyang Fu

We chatted with our four new Fellows about their career paths and their ambitions for the Fellowship.

Here’s what they had to say:

Katherine Reynolds Lewis

Katherine Reynolds Lewis never imagined becoming a journalist. In her senior year at Harvard University studying physics, Lewis had doubts about becoming a research physicist.

So, when she graduated, she worked mornings at a coffee shop and spent her afternoons interviewing for jobs she found in the help wanted section of the newspaper.

It was by pure chance that she landed in journalism, starting as a reporter at The Bond Buyer in New York.

Later, she’d move to Washington, D.C., where she covered politics and business at Bloomberg News and Newhouse News Service. One of her more notable moments while there was getting to fly on Air Force Two while covering Democrat Al Gore’s presidential campaign.

Now, Lewis has placed her reporting focus on education, something she’s been passionate about since she was 13.

“When I was a teenager, my favorite reading material was nonfiction stories about disabled kids with emotional disabilities or physical disabilities, and there was this whole genre of stories by special education teachers,” she said. “I thought I wanted to be a special ed teacher at that time.”

But that dream never panned out for Lewis, who felt she didn’t have what it took to meet the demands of the job.

Instead, Lewis decided to make a difference through her reporting

“I get so outraged by injustice and the fact that kids with disabilities and Black and brown kids are disproportionately punished in this country,” she said. “If I can be a small part of bridging the gap from research…to the practice of what’s happening in the schools, I think there’s no more important thing that I see a need for.”

And Lewis hopes to continue this work through her role at the O’Brien Fellowship. She’ll be working on long-form stories that bring awareness to education practices and teacher training that focuses on social justice.

“I think of myself as someone who’s looking to educate and cast light on under-covered issues, and there’s not always a clear finger to point in those kinds of stories the way that there is with traditional investigative stories, so (O’Brien) really was a perfect fit,” Lewis said.

Sari Lesk

Sari Lesk still remembers the moment she walked into a homeless shelter in Racine County, WI, and met a struggling young mother.

Lesk was working with a team of journalists at The Journal Times on a story about the high eviction rates in Racine County at the time. As a part of that project, they interviewed people at a homeless shelter to understand their perspectives on the subject.

The mother Lesk talked to was in her early 20’s and was trying to find a job.

But, the woman couldn’t find or afford daycare for her young baby, meaning it was difficult for her to attend job interviews that would allow her to get back on her feet. The woman told Lesk that she felt like the system was set up against her.

“You feel for her and that adorable little baby because it’s not like people don’t want to take care of themselves, but sometimes they need resources that just aren’t there,” Lesk said.

After the stories were published, Lesk said local officials held a hearing to address the eviction issues taking place in the county.

“It’s a gift to be able to do those things,” Lesk said. “To bring attention to things that are affecting your neighbors, your community members and hopefully bring them closer to solutions.”

To Lesk, moments like these have helped solidify why her career in journalism is so important.

Even before beginning her career, Lesk knew she wanted to do something that served others. At first, she thought that was teaching, but after more consideration, she realized the impact she could make through journalism could be greater.

Throughout her career, Lesk has touched lives through her reporting at the Stevens Point Journal, The Journal Times, the Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle, and now, the Milwaukee Business Journal.

Through her work at O’Brien, Lesk said she hopes to continue her mission of serving others by shedding some light on underserved populations in the banking world, who may not have the same access to money and other resources as others do.

Sarah Carr

Last year, Sarah Carr worked on a story on struggling readers, and how the COVID-19 pandemic added to their educational challenges.Carr said she was moved to dig deeper on the topic, and touched to learn that the featured families got many offers of free tutoring because of her story published in The Boston Globe.

Shedding light and creating impact through reporting is what most motivates Carr.

Early experiences reporting in high school and college made her realize journalism is what she actually wanted to do for a living.

And her graduate school experience of covering the youth beat inspired her to become an education journalist.

After spending large chunks of the last decade as a freelancer and working remotely, Carr said she felt energized to work with Fellows of all experience levels in O’Brien’s newsroom, do extensive research and produce in-depth stories.

“I’ve done a mix of daily and longer stories over the years, and the in-depth investigative work is what I’m most proud of,” Carr said.

Carr said she is excited to continue her reporting on education and help shine a new light on racial disparities in educational opportunity through her project at O’Brien.

“Sometimes we write pieces that change laws and change policy and have these concrete, tangible (results),” Carr said. “That’s wonderful. Other stories don’t have tangible results yet promote broader understanding, and empathy, and that’s vitally important, too.”

Guy Boulton

While attending college in the 1970s, Boulton realized he was not interested in being a part of the business world.

Boulton’s experience of working at a boarding school and serving as a VISTA volunteer made him see the need for equity, social justice and fair reporting. Moreover, events like the Watergate scandal and Vietnam War further strengthened Boulton’s drive to become a reporter.

Although Boulton did not take any journalism classes in college, he decided to step into the news industry with his passion for journalism.

From Utah to Florida, Boulton has covered topics relating to business, technology, healthcare, transportation and more. He’s worked as a reporter for, among others, The Salt Lake Tribune, The Tampa Tribune, The Cincinnati Enquirer, The Wichita Eagle, and now, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Boulton said one of his career goals is to help the public understand how the healthcare system works. He said he is proud of the broad range of stories that he has covered about this topic over the years.

Despite the changes of the news industry, Boulton believes investigative and explanatory journalism remains significant and has become more of a priority today.

In talking about the O’Brien Fellowship, Boulton said he is fascinated by the unique newsroom environment.

“Everyone has been remarkably friendly and helpful, and you also get a sense of the opportunity you have to draw on a lot of bright and accomplished people,” he said.

Boulton said it is valuable to have the chance to meet with other experienced journalists and get advice from them throughout the process of reporting.

Through his project at O’Brien, Boulton said he wants to help people understand the complexities of the healthcare system and how dollars are allocated in the industry.

“It’s a gift”; 2021–22 O’Brien Fellows aim to shed light on inequities was originally published in O'Brien Fellowship on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Birth doulas and midwives of color provide nurturing, sensitive and cost-saving care postpartum, but face financial and other barriers working alongside the traditional health care system.

That was the consensus of speakers at a virtual public forum entitled, “Postpartum: Perspectives on nurturing families during the ‘fourth trimester.’” It was sponsored by the O’Brien Fellowship in Public Service Journalism at Marquette University.

In Wisconsin, BadgerCare public health insurance funded by Medicaid covers midwifery services but not doula work.

Speakers, including practicing midwives and doulas, said that traditionally, people have to wait weeks to see their OB-GYN after giving birth, which can leave postpartum mood disorders unchecked for too long. Traditional OB-GYN birth services often lack cultural knowledge of the healing rituals and family support traditions of Black, Brown and Indigenous patients, speakers said at Monday’s event.

“We’ve returned to the ancient model of community,” said Lyanne Jordan, a doula and the executive director and co-founder of Maroon Calabash, a reproductive justice organization in Milwaukee. “Our model now is, ‘What do you need?’”

Panelists at the forum were interviewed by independent journalist Ashley Nguyen, who used her nine-month O’Brien Fellowship to delve into maternal health issues, including identifying states where Medicaid coverage includes doula services.

Marquette University student journalists Rachel Ryan and Sarah Lipo assisted Nguyen on the project and at the virtual event. The team’s stories appeared in The Lily and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Doulas make multiple home visits postpartum and communicate frequently with clients outside of those visits. They help recognize signs of emotional distress, give advice on nutrition and answer childcare questions, among other services, said speakers that also included Hope Mayotte, Indigenous doula and student midwife; doula Nicole Miles, the Birth Outcomes Made Better (BOMB) Doula program manager at the Milwaukee Health Department; Cheri Nemec, a leader in the Native Breastfeeding Coalition of Wisconsin; and certified professional midwife Sasha Bariffe of Prism Birth Services in Milwaukee.

Mayotte, owner of Wiiji-Nitaawiginaawasojig Indigenous Birth Services in Ashland, Wis., is working with a clinic to start a midwifery program in the area.

“Midwives are a godsend,” said Mayotte, a mother of six who recalled selling food and raising money through a garage sale to pay for a midwife. For her more recent births, midwife services were covered by BadgerCare.

Midwives help women before, during and after birth and can deliver babies at home. (Certain midwives can work in hospital settings, too.) Unlike most states, Wisconsin’s Medicaid health insurance program, BadgerCare, covers home births. In the case of private health insurance, coverage varies depending on each company’s policies.

Wisconsin’s Democratic Gov. Tony Evers supports extending BadgerCare to doula services, and extending BadgerCare coverage postpartum from the current 60 days to one year, Wisconsin Health Services Secretary Karen Timberlake said during Monday’s forum. In the past, the Republican-controlled Legislature has blocked those moves.

Half of all people who give birth in Wisconsin each year have their births paid for by the state’s Medicaid-funded program, Timberlake said.

Monday’s forum featured an excerpt from “Partum,” by Brown University medical student and documentary filmmaker Ade Osinubi, who is working on a project entitled, “Black Motherhood Through the Lens.”

In the film excerpt, Rhode Island resident Jai-Me Potter-Rutledge talked about her experience with postpartum depression. Potter-Rutledge is a health care professional and currently a PhD candidate at Salve Regina University, researching the impact of racial trauma and storytelling on health disparities and achieving health equity.

At the forum, Nguyen interviewed Dr. Kajua Lor, an associate professor and founding chair of the Clinical Sciences Department at the Medical College of Wisconsin School of Pharmacy in Milwaukee. Lor was the first Hmong pharmacist to obtain a pharmacy academia position in the nation.

Lor discussed her research on health disparities. She is conducting a survey of Hmong women about their experiences during the postpartum period.

To learn more about what doulas do, listen to this podcast produced by O’Brien interns Rachel Ryan and Sarah Lipo.

Doulas and midwives in Wisconsin are returning to ‘the ancient model of community’ was originally published in O'Brien Fellowship on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Nine students are joining four new Fellows on journalism projects in the fall

The O’Brien Fellowship in Public Service Journalism has picked the students who will join incoming reporters Katherine Reynolds Lewis, Sarah Carr, Sari Lesk and Guy Boulton on nine-month investigations into inequities in education, lending and health care.

Those student reporters include seven undergraduates in journalism at the Diederich College of Communication at Marquette University. Joining them are two students in the Communication Master’s Program at Marquette.

The undergraduates are Lelah Byron, Aimee Galaszewski, Bryan Geenen, Alexa Jurado, Annie Mattea, Maureen Ojiambo, and Vanessa Rivera. The graduate students are Quinn Faeth and Rachel Ryan.

Lelah Byron

Lelah Byron, 20, is a rising senior in journalism and political science from the Edison Park area of Chicago. She serves as an investigative reporter and executive projects editor for the Marquette Tribune student media news organization. She recently took first place in News Story-Writing (TV) at the 2020 Wisconsin Broadcaster’s Association Student Awards for Excellence. After graduation, she hopes to join Report for America. Byron says she strives to produce narrative-driven, accessible stories that allow a reader to “resonate with an individualized experience of injustice or victory beyond his or her own framework.”

Aimee Galaszewski

Aimee Galaszewski, 20, is a rising senior from Greenfield, Wis., a Milwaukee suburb. She is studying journalism and digital media. Galaszewski was selected executive director for the Marquette Wire student media organization for 2021–22. She has reported for The Wire, and this year was general manager of Marquette University Television, which won nine statewide broadcasting awards for 2020. She says she hopes, through the fellowship, to contribute to stories that could “make a difference in the community.” She is eyeing a career in television reporting.

Bryan Geenen

Bryan Geenen, 21, is a rising senior in journalism and sports management from Appleton in Wisconsin’s Fox Valley. He works as a reporter and social media producer for the Marquette Wire and also hosts a live sports talk show on Marquette Radio. More recently, for a self-produced podcast, he conducted wide-ranging interviews with those struggling to overcome drug addiction. He says getting to learn about new topics in this way and sharing these stories is what “makes journalism unique, challenging and rewarding.”

Alexa Jurado

Alexa Jurado, 20, is a senior student in journalism, digital media and Latinx studies. She is from Cary, Illinois, a northwest suburb of Chicago. For the Marquette Wire she has worked as a news reporter, assistant editor and a radio disc jockey with a show on news and music. She produced a short documentary for Greater Together, a creative storytelling challenge in 2020. She wants to demonstrate the “grit and determination” that reporters need to serve communities and hold those in power accountable. Jurado envisions working as a multimedia journalist at a publication, production company or a nonprofit media organization.

Annie Mattea

Annie Mattea, 20, is a rising senior studying journalism, digital media and political science. She grew up in Grayslake, Ill, north of Chicago. She has worked as a news reporter, news editor and managing editor for the Marquette Tribune, recently voted the best overall student newspaper in Wisconsin. For her, journalism is a way to put her natural curiosity to work for a good cause. “I’m interested in getting to know other people and figure out who they are,” she says. Upon graduation, expected in December 2021, Mattea hopes to start her journalism career at a local newspaper.

Maureen Ojiambo

Maureen Ojiambo, 28, is a junior studying journalism. She grew up in Nairobi, Kenya and gained experience as a local radio news reporter and anchor there. As an independent journalist, she has served as a Kenya news correspondent for the Voice of America. She has an associate degree from Multimedia University of Kenya. A long-term goal is to return to the Kenyan village of Funyula where she grew up and open a media school serving local residents. “As a journalist, I want to give young men and women

who cannot afford education, particularly from marginalized communities, a voice to tell their stories,” she says.

Vanessa Rivera

Vanessa Rivera, 21, is a rising senior studying journalism and digital media, with a concentration in communication leadership. She’s from Zion, a small Illinois city near the border with Wisconsin. She has worked as a news producer for the Marquette Wire with an emphasis on television. She serves as president of the Multicultural Greek Council, and earned the Exceptional Council President award at the 2021 Black & Multicultural Greek EMPOWERMENT! Summit. Rivera says she wants to pursue journalism that matters in a way that helps people, using her producing, writing and editing skills to tell “community-based stories and stories that have yet to be told.”

Quinn Faeth

Quinn Faeth, 22, is a first-year graduate student in media studies. He grew up in Edina, Minn., in the Minneapolis suburbs. He is graduating in May 2021 with a bachelor’s in journalism and communication studies from Marquette. Currently, he works as an assistant editor for the Marquette Wire and was previously an entertainment news reporter. He is also a writer for Breaking and Entering, a publication that features new music from small, independent artists. He produced a racial-justice related podcast called “Levels of Change,”and dreams of working for National Public Radio. “I have always been passionate about social justice, especially race and socioeconomic issues, so doing work that relates to these topics would be ideal,” he says.

Rachel Ryan

Rachel Ryan, 23, is a second-year graduate student studying digital communication strategies. She grew up in Oconomowoc, Wis., a small city 30 miles west of Milwaukee. Prior to Marquette, Ryan earned a bachelor’s in communication at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, where she worked in student media while minoring in Spanish and radio-TV-film. In 2020–21, as an O’Brien reporting intern, she helped O’Brien Fellow Ashley Nguyen investigate maternal health issues through stories in The Lily and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. They examined challenges faced by birth doulas. She says this work “opened my eyes even further to the change that journalism can generate, not just in society, but also in the communities most greatly impacted.”

Related:

Introducing the 2021–22 O’Brien Fellows

A Chat with O’Brien Reporting Intern Chris Miller

Read more about our student reporting internship program on our website.

Meet the 2021–22 O’Brien Fellowship Reporting Interns was originally published in O'Brien Fellowship on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.