Francisco Vara-Orta Is One of Five Selected for Inaugural ProPublica Scholarship

The Graduate Student Will Receive Funding to Attend the National Association of Hispanic Journalists/National Association of Black Journalists Annual Meeting in DC

New York (May 27, 2016) — Francisco Vara-Orta is one of five recipients of the first-ever ProPublica NAHJ/NABJ (National Association of Hispanic Journalists/National Association of Black Journalists) scholarship. Vara-Orta is a graduate student fellow studying data and in-depth journalism at the Missouri School of Journalism.

Francisco Vara-Orta
Francisco Vara-Orta

ProPublica created the scholarship program as one way to increase the diversity of its newsroom and journalism as a whole. It is a small but important step in making it easier for journalists from underrepresented communities to take advantage of everything these conferences offer, according to the website.

Vara-Orta and the other winners will receive a $500 scholarship to attend the 2016 NABJ and NAHJ annual convention this summer in Washington, D.C. More than 150 applications were received. The National Association of Hispanic Journalists will cover the students’ travel costs to and from the convention.

In addition to working at Investigative Reporters and Editors as a research assistant this summer, Vara-Orta will also work on a project with the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting that examines housing conditions for migrant workers. He was most recently a reporter at the San Antonio Express-News covering education.

Updated: September 29, 2020

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