Welcome LaunchPad Fellows of 2024

Join us in welcoming Renaissance Journalism’s 2024 LaunchPad NextGen Fellows. This national initiative, now in its second year, strives to empower early-career journalists who are passionate about reimagining journalism through the lens of equity and social justice and amplifying the voices of marginalized communities in the United States.

The 2024 cohort is composed of 10 talented early-career journalists who were selected through a competitive application process that included a written application and interview. The fellows are from Alaska, California, Connecticut, Oregon, Illinois, New York, North Dakota and Pennsylvania. They have a broad range of journalism experience working as independent journalists and as staff reporters at diverse media outlets, such as Grist, High Country News, ICT (Indian Country Today), Amsterdam News, Prism and The Nation, among others.

The nine-month fellowship begins on Oct. 21, 2024, with an intensive three-day learning experience in the San Francisco Bay Area. During the fellowship, the journalists will investigate a wide range of critical topics: pesticide use and its impact on farmworkers; policing in central Illinois; human trafficking and the sexual exploitation of Indigenous women in Alaska; threats to tribal cultural resources in the Pacific Northwest; disinformation campaigns in Chicago’s immigrant communities; the backlash against Ethnic Studies in public schools; the housing crisis on reservations in North Dakota; organ transplant system inequities; and climate change mitigation and Indigenous-owned state trust lands. 

“We are thrilled to welcome such a diverse and multi-talented group of early-career journalists to LaunchPad,” said Valerie Bush, executive director of Renaissance Journalism. “We were blown away by the breadth of their experience, the depth of their understanding of their proposed reporting topics, and their passionate commitment to community-centered and social justice-focused journalism. We can’t wait to see their powerful reporting projects come to fruition.”

Each fellow will receive a $5,000 grant to offset living expenses while conducting their research and reporting. They will also be paired with a journalist mentor who will work with them as a group and individually to hone their reporting projects and strengthen their reporting skills. Throughout the fellowship term, they will also be offered online trainings and webinars.

Meet the 2024 LaunchPad Fellows:

  • Adrianna Adame
  • Farrah Anderson
  • Mara Cavallaro
  • Jessica De La Torre
  • Taayoo Murray
  • B. ‘Toastie’ Oaster
  • Maria Rose 
  • Meghan Sullivan
  • Ray Uyeda
  • Wendy Wei

Learn more about our 2024 LaunchPad Fellows.

Our warmest thanks to The Nathan Cummings Foundation and the Ford Foundation for their support of LaunchPad.