Meet the 2022–23 O’Brien Fellowship Reporting Interns
Nine students are joining four new Fellows on journalism projects in the fall
The O’Brien Fellowship in Public Service Journalism has picked the students who will join incoming reporters Samantha Shapiro, Lauren Lindstrom, Lee Hawkins and John Diedrich on four nine-month investigations into issues involving education, housing, race and gun violence.
Those student reporters include seven undergraduates in journalism at the Diederich College of Communication at Marquette University. Joining them are two students in the Communication Master’s Program at Marquette.
The undergraduates in the eleventh O’Brien cohort are Andrew Amouzou, Skyler Chun, Maria Crenshaw, Hannah Hernandez, John Leuzzi, Julianna Okosun, and Ben Schultz. The graduate students are Ziyang Fu and Alexandra Rivera Grant.
Andrew Amouzou
Amouzou is a rising senior who is eager to get started with the O’Brien Fellowship program. As a journalism major, he has been able to experience the world of journalism right away through classwork and with the Marquette Wire student media organization that he will lead starting next fall. He looks forward to growing his skills, this time in investigative reporting. He believes being able to work on a podcast series will help him navigate through a new route of multimedia journalism that he is sure to learn a lot from.
Skyler Chun
Chun is a rising senior studying journalism and international affairs, with a minor in digital media. She grew up in Aiea, Hawaii, on the island of Oahu. She served as the managing editor of the Marquette Journal this year and was formerly the executive Arts & Entertainment editor for the Marquette Wire. She loves telling stories that explore new perspectives and open up conversations, and she’s looking forward to gaining more experience in public service journalism through this fellowship.
Maria Crenshaw
Crenshaw is a rising senior at Marquette University majoring in journalism and minoring in digital media and history. She reported for the Marquette Wire on the projects team and focused on investigative work there. During her time at the Wire she reported on a variety of topics such as food insecurity, sexual assault, the Marquette University Police Department, and COVID-19. As an O’Brien intern, Crenshaw hopes to gain more experience in the professional newsroom and hopes to push herself to create impactful journalistic work with the guidance of her fellow.
Ziyang Fu
Fu is a second-year graduate student studying Digital Communication Strategies at Marquette. Fu says he believes in “nothing but truth and justice” and he is eager to promote an ethical communication industry. He worked with 2021–22 O’Brien Fellow Sari Lesk on a project regarding small businesses in Milwaukee and their access to capital. He expects to take a deep dive into investigative reporting and seek solutions to pressing issues.
Hannah Hernandez
Hernandez is a rising senior from Milwaukee, WI. She is studying journalism with a double minor in writing-intensive English and Spanish. She currently works as a news reporter for the Marquette Wire and will intern at Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in the summer of 2022. Hernandez says she wants, through journalism, to highlight misrepresented communities that are often overlooked.
John Leuzzi
Leuzzi is a rising senior from Mount Laurel, NJ, studying journalism and digital media. He has worked as a sports reporter, assistant sports editor, and sports audio producer at the Marquette Wire. This past year at the Wire, he served as the executive sports editor. He recently took home gold at the Milwaukee Press Club Gridiron Dinner for Online: Best Sports Story for his feature article on former Marquette women’s basketball and now Connecticut Sun guard Natisha Hiedeman. Leuzzi says he is looking forward, through the fellowship, to pursuing stories that make an impact within a community.
Julianna Okosun
Okosun is pursuing a BA in Journalism with a minor in Digital Media (2023), and a MA in Digital Communication Strategies (2024), as a part of Marquette’s Accelerated Degree Program. She was born and raised in Copenhagen, Denmark, and moved to the United States in 2020 to play for Marquette’s Women’s Basketball Team. For the Marquette Wire she has worked as an audio producer for Marquette radio, creating weekly audio packages and hosting the podcast A&E Breakdown. Okosun is passionate about working in collaboration with others and applying a social justice lens to her work.
Alexandra Rivera Grant
Rivera Grant is an incoming first-year graduate student studying digital communication strategies. She will be graduating in May 2022 with a bachelor’s in digital media from Marquette. She is currently the Marquette Wire’s first editor of diversity and inclusion and has previously worked on a late-night entertainment show for three years prior. Her passion has always been about people. She believes there are many perspectives to be shared and she wants to help people feel seen.
Ben Schultz
Schultz is a senior journalism student from Wauwatosa, WI, a Milwaukee suburb. He has worked at the Marquette Wire as a sports reporter. Schultz says his interest in journalism came from a passion for writing, sports and stats and being able to incorporate them all together. Upon graduation, expected in December 2022, Schultz hopes to work as a print reporter writing data-driven stories or covering sports at the collegiate or prep level.
Related:
Announcing the 2022–23 O’Brien Fellows
Catching up with Diana Dombrowski
Read more about our student reporting internship program on our website.
