Thanks to gifts by NASW members and other conference attendees supplementing NASW's annual Community Support Grant budget allocation, 30 grantees received financial support to attend this year's ScienceWriters2023 annual meeting. Twenty of these grantees will also be traveling to Colorado for the in-person portion of the conference. Several are participating from their home countries spanning Tanzania to India, while others also have international ties.
Our 2023 NASW Conference Fellows
Participating Virtually
- Ariel Finkle, Freelance
- Brooke Bowser, University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Janet Otieno, African Ringer Media
- Olagunju Abdulrahmon, The Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria
- Rebecca Dang, Freelance
- Saadiqa Khan, Deutsche Welle / Scientia Pakistan
- Shakunthala Natarajan, Demolish Foods Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
- Shihab Jamal, Freelance
- Shweata N. Hegde, Tata Institute for Genetics and Society, Bangalore, India
- Yash Sharma, CACTUS Communications
Participating Virtually and In-Person
- Alex Ip, The Xylom / Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Alla Katsnelson, Freelance
- Ambar Castillo, Epicenter-NYC
- Andrea Tamayo, UC Santa Cruz
- Ankita Arora, Freelance
- Ashley Atkinson, Johns Hopkins University
- Brent Foster, Freelance
- Celia Ford, Freelance
- Corey Feuer, Vanderbilt University School of Law
- Gabriella Lewis, American Geophysical Union / Johns Hopkins University
- Guananí Gómez Van Cortright, Freelance
- Helina Selemon, The Blacklight at New York Amsterdam News
- Jake Krauss, EPA Office of Water
- McKenzie Prillaman, Freelance
- Michael Newman, Johns Hopkins Medicine
- Nora Bradford, UC Irvine
- Paul Adepoju, Freelance
- Rasha Aridi, Science Friday
- Robin Donovan, RobinKD Writing + Editing
- Starre Vartan, Freelance
For years, NASW has provided travel fellowships to help student and professional colleagues participate in the annual ScienceWriters conference. Since the pandemic, NASW has updated its Community Fund to offer support for teleconferencing equipment — as well as assistance with caregiving costs, such as for childcare or elder care. These conference fellowship grants reimburse up to $1,200 in travel expenses for in-person attendees and up to $350 in other expenses for virtual-only attendees. Additionally, conference fellows receive complimentary meeting registration, and eligible individuals also receive a complimentary Professional, Student, or Affiliate membership to NASW for the coming year.
More than 100 applications were received. The volunteer judging team of Amanda Heidt, Kat Eschner, Marla Broadfoot, Marilynn Marchione, Matt Shipman, and Ramin Skibba gave generously of their time to ensure each submission was read by multiple reviewers.
As part of the grant, most conference fellows are asked to assist with NASW conference communications by reporting on specific conference sessions, photographing events, and other outreach duties. Reporting clips filed by past ScienceWriters conference fellows over the years can be searched at www.nasw.org/article/event_coverage
"Our annual ScienceWriters conferences are a venue for students and professionals at all stages of their careers to come together and learn from each other. We created these support grants to help address financial barriers to participation, whether virtual or onsite," said NASW Executive Director Tinsley Davis. "Once again, thank you to everyone who donated this year to sustain our NASW Community Fund — and our gratitude also to the NASW board member volunteers who reviewed the record number of applications received. Together, you make these timely grants possible."
Held each year, the ScienceWriters conferences provide a gathering place for professionals and students working across the science news landscape. From journalists to institutional writers, from editors to producers, from seasoned science communicators to those exploring science and technology beats, from mentors to students, the events provide opportunities for skills development, new tools practice, professional networking, and topic debates for every attendee.
A co-production of the National Association of Science Writers (NASW), the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing (CASW), the University of Colorado Boulder, and the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, ScienceWriters2023 continues this tradition with craft and career workshops organized by NASW members, New Horizons in Science briefings curated by CASW, plus receptions and tours in Colorado hosted by CU Boulder and the CU Anschutz Medical Campus. Follow #SciWri23 to join the conversation.
Founded in 1934 with a mission to fight for the free flow of science news, NASW is an organization of ~ 2,800 professional journalists, authors, editors, producers, public information officers, students and people who write and produce material intended to inform the public about science, health, engineering, and technology. To learn more, visit www.nasw.org and follow NASW on LinkedIn.
Image Credits: All photos courtesy of grantees, with select images credited to: Knight Science Journalism Fellowship at MIT; Misty Jones Photography; Leah Miriam Cooper/University of Rhode Island; Alicia Boyd; John Smock; Sarah Tran
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