Our Fellows
Class of 2024-2026 | Class of 2025-2027
Class of 2024-2026
Mark Alfred
Mark was born and raised in San Diego. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he majored in political science and minored in labor studies. As the university news editor of the Daily Nexus student newspaper, he covered local unionization efforts, student housing shortages and campus leadership — reporting that was awarded Best News Series statewide by the California College Media Association in 2023 and 2024. Mark also has been a contributing writer for Noozhawk and an intern at the Pacific Coast Business Times and The Daily Beast.
Torrence Banks
Torrence grew up in Nashville. He received his undergraduate degree from Morehouse College, where he majored in English and minored in journalism, and received his graduate degree from the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism. He has worked with the University of Maryland’s Howard Center for Investigative Journalism on multiple projects — including an investigation into historical newspaper coverage of lynchings and racial torture and stories about the risks and rewards of youth tackle football. His reporting has also appeared in the Miami Herald, Afro-American Newspapers and Capital News Service. In the summer of 2024, he interned at U.S. News & World Report.
Amelia Benavides-Colón
Amelia grew up in Detroit. She received her bachelor’s degree from Wayne State University, where she majored in journalism and minored in global studies. At WSU, she was editor in chief of The South End, the student newspaper. She has interned at The Detroit News, Detroit Free Press and Crain’s Detroit Business, and she has contributed to the Detroit-based publications Outlier Media and El Central, as well as Eater Detroit and Planet Detroit. At each internship, Amelia contributed stories reflecting the experiences of minority communities, covering topics such as social determinants of health and problems with a municipal ID program. In the summer of 2024, she interned at The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Shifra Dayak
Shifra was born and raised in Silver Spring, Maryland. She recently graduated from the University of Maryland with a dual bachelor’s degree in journalism and environmental science and policy. She spent almost four years working for The Diamondback, the student newspaper, where she covered an ex-mayor’s arrest, fraud in student government elections, campus protests amid violence in Palestine and Israel, and more. She has also reported for Capital News Service, the University of Maryland’s Howard Center for Investigative Journalism, The Frederick News-Post and Stars and Stripes. In the summer of 2024, she interned at the Connecticut Mirror.
Helen Huiskes
Helen was born and raised in Portland, Oregon. She received her bachelor’s degree from Wheaton College in Illinois, majoring in English writing and minoring in international relations. She spent three years as editor in chief of The Wheaton Record, the student newspaper, where she covered breaking news, faculty cuts and campus debates over race. She also redesigned the paper’s digital format after a pandemic shift to mostly online publishing. Helen has interned at the Portland-based alt-weekly Willamette Week and The Chronicle of Higher Education in D.C., and her work has appeared in Christianity Today.
Violet Jira
Violet was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and raised in Cleveland, Mississippi, a small town in the Mississippi Delta. She recently received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Mississippi, where she majored in journalism and philosophy and minored in English. She was editor in chief of The Daily Mississippian, where she oversaw reporting on a gubernatorial race, local housing issues and AI’s impact on higher education. She wrote a range of stories for the paper, including in-depth pieces on Mississippi’s Medical Cannabis Program rollout. She has also covered Starkville, Mississippi, as an intern for The Commercial Dispatch.
Emily Kennard
Emily grew up in Arkansas. She recently graduated from the University of Central Arkansas with degrees in political science and journalism. At UCA, she served as editor in chief of The Echo, the weekly student newspaper, where she reported on topics including COVID-19 policies, compliance with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, the arrests and trials of students protesting for transgender rights and allegations of discrimination on two athletics teams. She also wrote an undergraduate thesis about national security reporting. In 2023, she was a money-in-politics reporting intern with OpenSecrets.
Samuel Larreal
Samuel obtained a bachelor’s degree in journalism and multimedia communications, with a concentration in political science, from Florida International University. His reporting on migrant communities for Caplin News, one of FIU’s student newspapers, has been republished by local public media outlets WLRN and WUSF. He has also worked as a bilingual fact-checker at the Miami Herald, a local news intern at NBC4 Washington and Telemundo 44, and a 2024 election correspondent at Teen Vogue.
Em Luetkemeyer
Em grew up in several small towns in rural Missouri. She graduated from the University of Missouri School of Journalism with a bachelor’s degree. During college, she was a writer and editor at a non-profit newspaper, the Columbia Missourian, for nearly two years. There, Em investigated the finances of the University of Missouri’s Board of Curators, covered protests, managed the newsroom and led reporters on the higher education and health beats. Her reporting on voting laws has been featured at news outlets across the South. She’s also a certified drone pilot and dabbles in aerial photography.
Margaret Manto
Margaret is a writer and scientist from Charlottesville, Virginia. She received her bachelor’s degree in biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was a biologist, researching genomics interventions for sustainable agriculture. She has written about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign for C-VILLE Weekly and local protests for Charlottesville Tomorrow.