SAJA Announces Scholarship Winners and Awards Finalists

June 25, 2009

NEW YORK (U.S. ASIAN WIRE) The South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA) and SAJA Group Inc. are pleased to announce the winners of the association's 2009 scholarships, as well as the finalists in its annual journalism awards contest.

SAJA awarded $11,500 in scholarships to five graduate students and two undergraduates who have demonstrated a strong interested in pursuing journalism.Finalists for the SAJA 2009 Journalism Awards for work done produced in 2008 include Bloomberg, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Frontline, NPR and The Wall Street Journal.

This year, SAJA received more than 200 entries in 10 categories. Winners were selected by 40 judges. Each award winner will receive a certificate at SAJA's 15th Annual Awards Banquet on Saturday, July 11, 2009, at Columbia University. The student winners will receive an additional cash prize.

SAJA SCHOLARSHIP WINNERS

Graduate students:

1) Priyanka Pruthi -- $2,000 CNN-SAJA Scholarship for Broadcast Journalist
2) Siddhartha Vaidyanathan -- $1,500 SAJA Atlantic Media New Media Scholarship
3) Ramya Jegatheesan -- $2,000 SAJA Scholarship
4) Rehan Jamil -- $2,000 SAJA Scholarship
5) Hani Yousaf -- $1,000 SAJA Scholarship

Undergraduate College Students:

1) Carol Kuruvilla -- $1,500 SAJA Scholarship
2) Bibek Bhandari -- $1,500 SAJA Atlantic Media New Media Scholarship

SAJA JOURNALISM AWARD FINALISTS

Category 1 - The Daniel Pearl Award for outstanding reporting about South Asia, or South Asians in North America: All Media

Pakistan: State of Emergency -- David Montero,- FRONTLINE/World
Karachi: The Urban Frontier -- Steven Inskeep, NPR
Testing Grounds: Our medicine at what cost -- Kris Hundley, St. Petersburg Times
The Godfather of Bangalore -- Scott Carney, Wired

Category 2 - Outstanding business story about South Asia, or South Asians in North America: All Media

India Billionaire Mallya Isn’t Showing Shareholders Everything -- Abhay Singh and Subramaniam Sharma, Bloomberg
Indian to the Core, and an Oligarch -- Anand Giridharadas, The New York Times
Grounded: Indian American Flight School Goes Out of Business -- Lisa Tsering, India West

Category 3 - Outstanding arts, culture, or travel story about South Asia, or South Asians in North America: All media

On the “Slumdog” Trail -- Jonathan Foreman, Standpoint
Losing the Yeti -- Tim Sullivan, Associated Press
A Nod to Arranged Marriage this Wedding Season -- Sandip Roy, NPR

Category 4 - Outstanding editorial/commentary on South Asia, or South Asians in North America: All media

The Real Bhutto: Against the Mythmaking -- Jonathan Foreman, National Review
First Person: Cabbie’s Girl -- Simran Chawla, The Washingtonian
Be Gay, Be Anything You Want - Just Not Single -- Sandip Roy, New America Media
How to Save Afghanistan -- Rory Stewart, Time

Category 5 - Outstanding photograph about South Asia, or South Asians in North America (single or series)

Praying in Exile -- Emilio Morenatti, Associated Press
Domestic Violence in Pakistan -- Emilio Morenatti, Associated Press

Category 6 - Outstanding piece or series covering the Mumbai Attacks: All media

In Just Minutes, Mumbai Was Under Seige -- Emily Wax, The Washington Post
Mumbai Massacre: The Fourth Day -- Dan Harris (anchor), Nicholas Schifrin (correspondent), ABC News
India Security Faulted as Survivors Tell of Terror -- Yaroslav Trofimov, Geeta Anand, Peter Wonacott & Matthew Rosenberg, The Wall Street Journal

Category 7 - Outstanding piece or series covering the conflict in Sri Lanka: All Media

Sri Lanka: A Terrorist in the Family -- Beate Arnestad, FRONTLINE/World
Inside Sri Lanka -- Stewart Bell, The National Post
Sri Lanka-Shadow War -- Ravi Nessman, Associated Press

Category 8 - For journalists of South Asian origin working in North America for any media outlet: Outstanding story on any subject: All media

Opting Out -- Geeta Anand, The Wall Street Journal
Education Push Yields Little for India’s Poor -- Somini Sengupta, The New York Times
Chaplain Turner’s War (8-part narrative series) -- Moni Basu, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Category 9 - For journalists of South Asian origin working in North America for any media outlet: Outstanding editorial/op-ed/commentary on any subject: All media

The Pitfalls of Linking Doctors’ Pay to Performance -- Sandeep Jauhar, The New York Times
Equal treatment for the uninsured? Don’t count on it -- Manoj Jain, Washington Post
Targeting Tolerance in Mumbai -- Sadia Shepard,The Forward

Category 10- Students of South Asian origin in North America: Outstanding story on any subject by a South Asian student in the US or Canada: All media

India: The Cost of Yellowcake. Mining Uranium on Tribal Lands -- Sonia Narang, Graduate School of Journalism, University of California - Berkeley
Healthy. Happy. Holy. -- Adithya Sambamurthy, Graduate School of Journalism, University of California - Berkeley
Hoardhouse:Compulsive Clutter in NYC -- Karn Dhingra, Jackie Kasuya, Ben Piven, Columbia Graduate School of Journalism

To find links to those stories, please visit http://saja.org/convention/index.php/archive/saja-2009-journalism-award-finalists

Tickets to SAJA's 15th Annual Awards Banquet, along with convention passes, may be purchased from the association's Web site at www.saja.org/convention. Please join us in celebrating SAJA @ 15 with our special convention and banquet discounts. For members, SAJA is offering 15th Anniversary convention passes to the first 100 students who register for only $15. SAJA and affiliated organization members may purchase their passes for just $50 this year and non-members can buy passes for $100. Tickets to the banquet are included in convention passes or may be purchased for $50.