The Arizona State University graduate student will contribute to a national investigative reporting project this summer, examining how the federal government has responded to natural disasters over the past several decades.
In preparation for their News21 investigation into how the federal government has handled natural disasters, Elon junior Anton Delgado and the 2019 Carnegie-Knight News21 Fellows convened online last week for the first time.
While he’s an aspiring sports journalist, Simon explained he couldn’t pass up the prospect of participating in News21, long viewed as one of the most prestigious student journalism internships in the country.
“It’s such an outstanding and unique investigative reporting opportunity – one that I might never get a chance to do again – that I figured I had to do it,” said Simon, a journalism major at Elon. “I was highly encouraged by several professors to participate and, while I might be a sports person, I was told there would be a lot of value in the experience for me, and that I’d add value to the program as well.”
Headquartered at ASU’s Cronkite School, News21 draws top journalism students from across the country to the desert each summer. This year’s approximately 35 Fellows hail from 18 universities across the United States, as well as Canada and Ireland. Included in the mix are more than a dozen ASU students, like Simon.
As part of the paid summer fellowship, the college students spend 10 weeks researching and compiling an in-depth multimedia project, often traveling throughout the country to strengthen their reporting. Past News21 investigations have focused on water pollution, food safety, marijuana use and U.S. gun legislation. Emmanuel Morgan ’19 participated in the 2018 project and examined hate crimes, hate groups and their targets and victims in the United States.
While Elon has been a regular participant in the News21 program since 2012, Simon is the first Elon alumnus to be nominated and participate representing a graduate school.
“Thanks to Elon, I’ve felt very prepared for what Arizona State has thrown at me since I’ve gotten here,” said Simon, who began the ASU graduate program in August. He also credited Elon’s School of Communication for its “flexibility,” which allowed him to switch his focus from sports broadcasting to print journalism – what he called “my new passion.”
Delgado said he looks forward to reconnecting with Simon, recalling that the two student journalists overlapped in the ENN newsroom in 2016-17.
“Alex mentored me throughout my first year at Elon News Network and I’m thrilled he’ll be joining me at News21,” Delgado said. “It is great knowing a fellow Phoenix and an incredible journalist will have my back throughout the summer.”
In addition to his ASU coursework, Simon will serve this spring as the managing editor of GlobalSport Matters, a multimedia content hub that provides news coverage on topics making an impact beyond the playing field. The publication is a joint effort between the Global Sport Institute and the Cronkite School.
This may not be surprising, but graduate school hasn’t stop Simon from getting his byline published. As part of a graduate class project last fall, he wrote an expansive article about baseball’s increasingly bilingual clubhouses that was published Jan. 1 by Cronkite News, the news division of Arizona PBS.
Following his Elon graduation, Simon served as an associate reporter for MLB.com covering the Oakland Athletics during the latter part of the 2017 season. As an Elon student, he completed an editorial internship with Baseball America and regularly covered prep sports and collegiate athletics for the Burlington Times-News.