Thanks to gifts by NASW members and other conference attendees supplementing NASW's annual Community Support Grant budget allocation, 27 grantees received financial support to attend this year's ScienceWriters2022 annual meeting. Fifteen of these grantees will also be traveling to Memphis for the in-person portion of the conference. At least 11 are participating from their home countries, while others also have international ties.
Our 2022 NASW Conference Fellows
Students
- Alex (Ching Lam) Ip, Georgia Tech and The Xylom (Hong Kong)
- Daniel Ogetta, AKU Graduate School of Media and Communications (Kenya)
- Emily Shepherd, Johns Hopkins Science Writing
- Hosen Arman, APHL-CDC Laboratory Fellowship
- Rebekah White, Columbia Journalism School (New Zealand)
- Shushan Hovsepyan, Harvard Medical School Effective Writing for Health Care Certificate Program (Armenia)
- Shweata N. Hegde, Regional Institute of Education, Mysore (India)
- Zoe Grueskin, CUNY Newmark Graduate School of Journalism
Professionals
- Alex Viveros, Freelance/Broad Institute
- Andrew Meissen, Freelance
- Claire Cleveland, Freelance
- Daniel Erenstein, Freelance
- David Jen, Freelance
- Deogracious Kalima, Freelance (Malawi)
- Karen Brown, New England Public Radio/Freelance
- Jude Coleman, Freelance
- Laura Castañón, Freelance
- Ling Xin, South China Morning Post (China)
- Marielba Núñez, Freelance (Venezuela)
- Nyasha Bhobo, Freelance (Zimbabwe)
- Pakinam Amer, Freelance (Egypt)
- Ruth Keah, Radio Rahma (Kenya)
- Ryan Prior, Author
- Sadiqa Khan, Scientia magazine (Pakistan)
- Sahana Sitaraman, Freelance (Switzerland)
- Shihab Jamal, Freelance (Yemen)
- Wayne Pereanu, 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 Student or Professional membership to NASW for the coming year.
More than 90 applications were received. The volunteer judging team of Anne Connor, Jenny Cutraro, Jill Adams, Jill Sakai, Joseph Caputo, Jyoti Madhusoodanan, Marla Broadfoot, Kelly Tyrell, and Tyler Jones gave generously of their time to ensure each submission was read by multiple reviewers.
As part of the grant, 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. "We are grateful to everyone who donated this year to sustain our NASW Community Fund. Thank you, too, to the volunteers who reviewed the record number of applications received. Together, you make these timely grants possible."
Founded in 1934 with a mission to fight for the free flow of science news, NASW is an organization of ~ 2,700 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
A co-production of the National Association of Science Writers (NASW), the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing (CASW), and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, the ScienceWriters2022 national conference features an online portion Oct. 12-19, followed by an in-person portion held in Memphis, Tenn. Oct. 21-25. Learn more at www.sciencewriters2022.org and follow the conversation on Twitter at #SciWri22
Image Credits: Amanda Bloch Prior, Alex Viveros, Pakinam Amer, Hosen Arman, Claire Cleveland, Jesse Kireyev, Ebi Antony George, Karen Brown, Andrew Meissen, Laura Castañón, Marielba Núñez, Geet Sharma, Ling Xin, Nyasha Bhobo, Daniel Ogetta, Annie Roth, David Jen, Neil Silverwood, Oscar Ochieng, Saadeqa Khan, Basement Cultural Foundation, Shweata N. Hegde
