GCC Pulitzer Center Fellows

Pulitzer Center at GCC Names Carissa Coane as 2025 Student Fellow

Coane to Investigate Gender-Based Violence and Discrimination Against Sweden’s Sámi Community

Glendale, Calif. — The Pulitzer Center at Glendale Community College is proud to announce Carissa Coane as the college’s 2025 Pulitzer Center Fellow. Coane, a standout student journalist at GCC, will travel to Sweden to report on the underreported and urgent issues facing the Indigenous Sámi community—specifically gender-based violence and systemic discrimination.

Her fellowship project, supported through the Pulitzer Center’s Campus Consortium, will explore disproportionately high rates of intimate partner violence affecting Sámi women and examine the broader implications of racial and cultural marginalization. Through this initiative, Coane hopes to challenge assumptions about Nordic countries as models of gender equality.

“I first learned about the Sámi people during a trip to Norway,” Coane said in a recent El Vaquero interview. “Their history of forced assimilation and ongoing struggles resonated deeply with me. This fellowship is an opportunity to amplify their voices and bring attention to their plight.”

The Pulitzer Center at GCC was co-founded by Dr. Reut Cohen Schorr and Professor Michelle Stonis to support and guide students in producing international, investigative reporting on underreported issues. “The fellowship empowers students to explore uncharted territories of journalism,” said Dr. Cohen. “It’s about equipping them with the tools to tell stories that matter.”

Professor Stonis added, “Carissa represents the very best of what this program was created to support—journalists who pursue truth, justice, and visibility for communities that are too often ignored.”

Coane’s project not only seeks to raise awareness but also to inform policy, particularly around issues such as reindeer herding rights and legal protections for Sámi women. She has taken a meticulous and research-driven approach to her reporting, aiming to produce a project that drives both conversation and change.

2024 GCC Pulitzer Center Fellow

Samantha Smith will be covering Formula 1 and the absence of women in the popular sport. Samantha will be traveling to England this summer to conduct her interviewing and research.

Sami graduated from Glendale Community College last semester with an Associate's in Journalism. She is continuing her education at California State University, Northridge with a BA in Journalism. Although she is an alumna, she will continue to represent GCC through her tenure as Fellow. Ms. Smith has had many  opportunities to delve into the sports journalism world through her work with the college's Journalism Department newspaper.

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2023 GCC Pulitzer Center Fellow

Brittany Klintworth is a Mass Communication and Journalism double major who hopes to transfer to a four-year university after Fall 2023. The dress she wears has a tag stamp that documents the International Ladies Garment Workers Union made it, which is fitting since her Pulitzer reporting will focus on the mass consumption of fast fashion through an intersectional feminist lens.

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2022 Reporting Fellow Jacqueline Kamei from Glendale Community College presents her reporting "Social Media: A Double-Edged Sword for the Feminist Movement" at Pulitzer Center's Washington Weekend on October 15, 2022.