The Asian American Journalists Association is proud to announce the 2025 cohort of AAJA’s VOICES, a premier multimedia journalism fellowship that supports college journalists through mentorship with industry professionals. This year’s cohort will be guided by a dynamic team of accomplished editors and newsroom leaders.
For over 30 years, the VOICES program has provided student journalists with hands-on opportunities to sharpen their reporting and leadership skills. Our alumni have gone on to shape the future of journalism at major outlets such as CNN, the Los Angeles Times, and the Texas Tribune.
Meet the 2025 VOICES editors:
Jessica Hilo, VOICES 2025 Managing Editor, is a seasoned editorial leader with over 15 years of experience in digital production, social media marketing, product management, audience analytics, and content strategy. She has worked for USA Today, Samsung News, MSNBC, NBC News, CBS, Yahoo!, and other media outlets. She has a Master of Arts degree in specialized journalism from the University of Southern California and holds undergraduate degrees in political science, literature, and music from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Allison Cho, VOICES 2025 Deputy Editor, is a business editor at CNN. She edits business, tech and media stories, and helps lead the business team’s evening coverage. Before this, she was a multiplatform editor at The Washington Post, where she edited news and helped produce the print newspaper. She’s currently based in New York but is originally from Chicago.
Russell Leung, VOICES 2025 Editor, is a digital rotational associate at CNBC. He currently works on the social media team but previously helped produce “Closing Bell: Overtime” and wrote for the consumer news section. He studied journalism and environmental sciences at Northwestern University and is a lifelong New Yorker.
Andrew Nguyen, VOICES 2025 Editor, is a journalist and developer at the Boston Globe, where he builds news apps and interactive graphics. He uses his expertise in data, design and code to make charts, maps and other special presentations to help readers better understand and engage with the news. The Toronto-native has more than a decade of experience working in newsrooms in Canada and the United States as a reporter, developer, web editor and fact checker. Since joining the Globe, he has contributed to several award-winning projects. Most recently, he was part of the team that produced the Boston Globe’s Spotlight report on Massachusetts’ housing crisis “Beyond the Gilded Gate.”
Mythili Sampathkumar, VOICES 2025 Editor, is a freelance journalist based in New York. Her reporting work can be found in The New York Times, L.A. Times, Vox, Teen Vogue, NBC News, Fortune, Forbes, The New Republic, Daily Beast, and more. She was also a staff reporter for The Independent’s New York bureau and former president of SAJA. In recent years, she has written textbooks, edited a photojournalism coffee table book, and managed several newsletters including her own, called Export Quality. She’s also a collage artist in her spare time.
After a highly competitive application process, AAJA is thrilled to welcome the 2025 VOICES cohort. This year’s fellowship begins in late spring and includes months of collaborative training and reporting, culminating at #AAJA25 in Seattle. We’re excited to see the stories they will produce and the community they’ll build together.
AAJA is proud to accept the following students for VOICES 2025:
2025 VOICES COHORT:
Aditya Thiyag, University of Southern California
Amrutha Kosuru, New York University
Ava Hu, University of California, Berkeley
Caitlyn Daproza, Rochester Institute of Technology
Diamy Wang, University of Pennsylvania
Kabir Burman, Muhlenberg College
Kat Tran, University of Florida
Madison Yue, Washington University in St. Louis
Malcolm Caminero, University of Southern California
Riya Sharma, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Sana Dadani, Stanford University
William Tong, Northwestern University
ABOUT VOICES
VOICES is a student fellowship program that equips student journalists with skills to succeed in the continually evolving media landscape. The program aims to help journalists understand how audiences engage with them, how communities view the work they produce, and how they can understand the impact of their work. By nurturing relationships between students and professional volunteers, VOICES gives fellows the opportunity to tap into editors’ networks and grow their own. Learn more here, and see past student work on the VOICES website.
