April 30, 2025
The Program in Journalism held its seventh annual Senior Colloquium on April 30, 2025. Thirteen seniors pursuing their minor in journalism presented a piece of journalism they have created based on field reporting, or that explores the challenges and opportunities facing contemporary journalism.
The colloquium offered the seniors experience in presenting and gaining valuable feedback on their work. The brief presentations were followed by responses from faculty and distinguished journalists.
SCHEDULE
9:00 a.m. — Opening remarks and introductions
9:15 a.m. — Session I
Isabella Checa (Geosciences)
Esmeralda’s Bajo Agua: Environmental Collapse Fuels Ecuador’s Coastal Crisis
This short documentary tells the story of Yuli Valencia, a community builder helping families impacted by floods in Esmeraldas—Ecuador’s coast. Yuli’s stories and experiences helping people through the non-profit she works for, CAEMBA, bring light to the intersecting issues that coastal communities face and what it means to regain hope at a community-level. These people’s stories bring a crucial environmental perspective into the conversations of the current organized crime crisis affecting Ecuador.
Julianna Lee (Politics)
Church and Sexuality: Being Catholic and Gay in the 21st Century
In my piece, I tell the stories of two men—connected to each other by an organization and a priest—who are living out their authentic masculinity and whose voices are typically not found in popular media. These men are members of Courage International, a world-wide Catholic ministry that works with same-sex attracted Catholics. We will meet Garrett Johnson, the Washington D.C. hair dresser living in a Benedictine monastery who is coming to terms with his own masculinity through the complicated and redemptive relationship he has with his father; we will meet Daniel Gugg, a 3-year-old masters student of mathematics at the University of Wisconsin who discovered Courage International and his unique calling after being tricked on a dating app; we will speak to Father Colin Blatchford, the Catholic priest from a family of ten who takes his role as spiritual father seriously, walking alongside Courage and its members.
Natalia Maidique (Chemistry) and Adam Sanders (Religion)
Princeton Residents Clash at 344 Nassau Street’s Development Proposal, Some Fighting for Housing Justice and Others for Historic Preservation
A housing proposal in Princeton, NJ stalls in the permitting process for three years as residents are inflamed by the project. Proponents highlight the need for denser housing in the town with more affordable options, while opponents argue the proposed design is disrespectful to the historical character of the neighborhood. In a battle between values, compromises are necessary but near-impossible to secure.
Ashley Olenkiewicz (Public & International Affairs)
A Hidden Cost: Understanding the likely effect of U.S. aid cuts on the 2026 election in Uganda
While food and health-related aid make up a large percentage of U.S. foreign assistance to the lowest-income countries, there are many other categories and types of U.S. funding focused on governance and democracy. How is this loss being felt? My story memo describes how cuts to USAID in Uganda might affect the upcoming 2026 presidential election. I utilized interviews with senior officials at non-governmental organizations in Uganda to learn how USAID has thus far supported the strength and stability of civil society.
Lia Opperman (Public & International Affairs)
New Jersey’s Changing Tides: The State’s Right-Wing Shift Through the Eyes of a Polarized Count
My story focuses on why residents of Atlantic County, once home to Trump’s casino empire and a reliably blue region for president, voted for him in 2024. This story reflects a broader shift in New Jersey politics towards the right, through the lens of one of the only current red counties in the state. It blends historical analysis with on-the-ground reporting with current casino workers, politicians, voters, and polling experts, who come together to explain why residents support a man whose business collapsed and hollowed out their economy, and more broadly, why this shift may be occuring.
Isabel Yip (English)
What Exactly is that Ivy League Look?
“What Exactly is that Ivy League Look?” once described the essence of the Ivy League through its fashion, specifically the “Ivy league suit.” Today, styles resembling the preppy looks of Princeton in the 60s surface as a trend called the Old Money aesthetic, an attempt to recreate the quintessential tailoring, plaids, and conservative styles associated with the Ivy League. I interviewed alumni, students, and fashion experts to understand the role style plays in upholding what the Ivy League means to Americans.
10:15 a.m. — Break
10:30 p.m. — Session II
Annie Rupertus (History)
DEI bans are shuttering women’s and LGBTQ+ centers at colleges across the US
My long-form story tracks women’s and LGBTQ+ resource centers on college campuses that have shuttered due to anti-DEI legislation. It combines comprehensive analysis mapping this nationwide pattern with in-depth interviews that shine a light on the impact of these closures on students, staff, and school communities.
Anna Salvatore (History)
Foul Play: Race, Baseball, and the KKK in 1925
My capstone tells the story of a baseball game between the Ku Klux Klan and the all-Black Wichita Monrovians in the summer of 1925. Much of my reporting took place during a trip to Kansas last summer, where I interviewed local historians, visited the original site of the game, and consulted the archives at the Wichita Public Library, the Kansas African American Museum, and the Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum. The results were as surprising as you might expect.
Sophie Steidle (English)
The Cost of Care: Dialysis Treatment Options & Patient Experiences
I wrote The Cost of Care: Dialysis Treatment Options & Patient Experiences in honor of my grandmother, who experienced serious health complications from in-center dialysis treatments. I investigated disparities between in-center and at-home dialysis care. Through interviews, expert insights, and patient stories, my project critiques financial, educational, and racial systemic barriers that prevent patients from accessing more flexible, sustainable at-home treatment options.
Davina Thompson (Public & International Affairs)
As Galamsey Pollutes Ghana’s Water Supply, Community Leaders Rise Against Government Inaction
Through the lens of a growing environmental movement in Ghana, this feature story examines how communities respond to the devastation caused by illegal mining, commonly called galamsey. Blending faith-based activism with environmental science, the piece follows Rev. Fr. Nicholas Aazine, a Catholic priest leading prayer protests against galamsey, and Chibeze Ezekiel, a Goldman Environmental Prize winner using policy advocacy to demand local action on climate and mining regulation. Together, their efforts illuminate a new model of grassroots resistance as Ghanaians confront an accelerating water crisis and fight to protect their ecosystems and livelihoods.
Joshua Yang (Philosophy)
Minority within a minority: Mob lynchings disproportionately affect low caste, impoverished Muslims in rural India
Instances of Muslim lynchings in India have soared in the decade that the Hindu Nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has held power in the country. Through interviews with the families of Muslim lynching victims, my project examines the years-long impact of lynchings, especially along caste-based, geographic, and socioeconomic lines.
Charlie Roth (Public & International Affairs)
Notarios
During a heightened time of fear for immigrants, scammers are taking advantage of them by pretending to be lawyers and offering help in the immigration process. This investigation shows how these scammers take the immigrants’ money and run in scams that often go unreported.
11:50 a.m. — Advice to Young Journalists – Aaron Robertson ’17
12:00 p.m. — Lunch and Tribute to Joe Stephens
