Montana Grad Student Wins Prestigious Journalism Award

Katie Riordan, a master’s degree candidate in journalism at the University of Montana, received an Overseas Press Club Foundation Scholar Award at the 2016 Annual Scholar Awards Luncheon held at the Yale Club in New York City.

Riordan was among 15 aspiring foreign correspondents selected by a panel of leading journalists out of 175 applicants from 50 different colleges and universities. She is the first student from a college in Montana to win the award.

Riordan’s winning application told how, after deportation from Yemen, she headed to the Republic of Somaliland in the Horn of Africa and covered the effects of drought on nomadic tribes, among other environmental and political stories. Her interest lies in reporting on the impact of climate change and the growing number of climate refugees.