AAJA: Asian American Journalists Association


Annual Knowledge@Wharton Scholarships for Business Journalism

CONTACT: Sandeep Junnarkar, SAJA president, sajamember@gmail.com

South Asian Journalists Association announces winners of the 2008 Knowledge@Wharton Awards for Business Journalism

NEW YORK, September 9, 2008 — The South Asian Journalists Association is pleased to announce four outstanding journalists who have won the 2008 Knowledge@Wharton Awards for Business Journalism, sponsored by SAJA, the Wharton School and the Knowledge@Wharton online business journal.

  • Anupreeta Das, a member of SAJA and a journalist with Reuters in San Francisco is the winner of the ninth annual SAJA-Knowledge@Wharton Award.
  • Erik Ortiz, member of the Asian American Journalists Association and a staff writer for The Press of Atlantic City in New Jersey, won the AAJA-Knowledge@Wharton Award.
  • La Neice Collins, a producer at CNN in New York City and a member of the National Association of Black Journalists, won the NABJ-Knowledge@Wharton Award.
  • Gina Acosta, an assistant editor for the editorial page of The Washington Post and a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, won the NAHJ-Knowledge@Wharton Award.

The awards provide journalists with a scholarship to attend the prestigious Wharton Seminars for Business Journalists (www.wharton.upenn.edu/journalists) at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in October.

Knowledge@Wharton and SAJA launched the award in 1999 and later expanded it to include the four organizations in UNITY: Journalists of Color -- AAJA, NABJ, NAHJ and NAJA.

"A mortgage crisis, global market turmoil, and federal, state and local government budget cuts. There is no doubt how important economic and business coverage is no matter what beat a journalist covers," said SAJA President Sandeep Junnarkar. "The Knowledge@Wharton seminar is an immensely valuable opportunity for journalists to learn about intricacies of business coverage. We're grateful to the Wharton School for the 9th year of continued support."

Any member of SAJA, AAJA, NABJ, NAHJ, NAJA who is a reporter, editor or producer (including freelancers) currently living in the United States or Canada and working in business journalism or a field that overlaps, such as healthcare or technology. Applicants must be available to attend the Wharton program this year. Individuals with two to seven years of experience as a business reporter or those new to business reporting, but with five to 10 years of experience as a reporter in another field, are encouraged to apply.

"Knowledge@Wharton seeks to disseminate the knowledge behind the news, and the continuing support of the Knowledge@Wharton Awards for SAJA and the UNITY organizations fits in well with this mission," said Mukul Pandya, executive director and editor in chief of Knowledge@Wharton. "We are delighted to welcome this year's winners to the Wharton Seminars."