Bianca Fortis Wins National Press Club's 2018 Shirley and Dennis Feldman Fellowship for Studies in Journalism

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Aug 22, 2018, 14:47 ET

WASHINGTON, Aug. 22, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Press Club, the world's leading professional organization for journalists, has chosen Bianca Fortis as the winner of its 2018 Shirley and Dennis Feldman Fellowship. The award is for a student pursuing graduate studies in journalism and is a one-time scholarship of $5,000.

Fortis is a 2010 graduate of the University of Central Florida and has since worked as a freelance journalist and as a community news reporter. She will use the scholarship to attend the Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism at Columbia University.

"Bianca's tenacity and ability to get her story was impressive," said Andrea Snyder Edney, President of the National Press Club. "We look forward to seeing important work from Bianca in the years to come."

Fortis is "the kind of journalist we need right now, someone who is able to engage with both rural and urban America from a global perspective," said Brian Mittge, her former editor at The Chronicle, a 10,000 circulation newspaper in Centralia, Washington.

During her time at the paper, Fortis won Society of Professional Journalism awards and never hesitated to jump into complicated subjects, Mittge notes, including being one of the few reporters in the region that gained access to the Chehalis Reservation, whose residents are not usually open to non-tribal reporters.

The scholarship judges were also impressed with Fortis' freelance work. Fortis - who is of Puerto Rican descent - along with photojournalist Elaine Cromie, used crowdsourcing to fund a trip to Puerto Rico in October 2017, to produce stories about the community struggling in the aftermath of the hurricane for publications like the Detroit Free Press and Vice.

Contacts: Jen Judson, 303-917-6950
Joann Booze, 202-662-7532

SOURCE National Press Club