St. Bonaventure University journalism student Meghan Hall will investigate poverty and the pandemic this summer as the recipient of a prestigious Carnegie-Knight News21 fellowship.

Hall is a junior from Amherst majoring in journalism and marketing.

This is the sixth year in a row St. Bonaventure students have been selected to participate in the reporting initiative headquartered at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. The program brings top journalism students from across the country to report and produce in-depth, multimedia projects for major media outlets.

This semester, leading up to the summer program, Hall will complete the News21 seminar, a weekly online class that concludes in late April. The 10-week fellowship investigating poverty and the pandemic will begin in late May.

“Meghan Hall is a dynamic young journalist and I am confident she will excel in the News21 program, following her superb Jandoli School predecessors,” said Aaron Chimbel, dean of the Jandoli School of Communication at St. Bonaventure, which nominated her for the fellowship. “Meghan deserves this honor and will make profound contributions that all Bonnies can be proud of.”

Hall looks forwarding to using the reporting skills she’s already developed as a student journalist and to exploring the pandemic on a national scale.

“It will be valuable, telling people’s stories,” Hall said.

Hall has had her hand in advertising, digital and social media, and reporting through her internships and coursework, enjoying the mix of roles and grateful the experiences have helped her expand her skillset and give her more choices for internship and career opportunities.

Last summer, Hall interned with a digital content team at SiriusXM Radio, where she helped create content and videos for SiriusXM’s YouTube channel, conducted analytics on the audio entertainment company’s social media accounts, and blogged.

“It was pretty exciting. I loved my team and there was a great overlap between both of my majors. It was a good way to explore what I can do with my majors and discover more opportunities,” Hall said.

She also kept honing her research skills and demand for accuracy last summer as a contributing writer with PolitiFact, which fact-checks journalism.

As a news reporter with TAPinto Greater Olean the past two years, Hall has written extensively about Olean and Western New York, including covering individual stories and trends about COVID-19.

She said the News21 program will “expand my capabilities to understand what has been happening in the country and expand my opportunities as a journalist. It will be a great way to further develop skills the Jandoli School has already taught me.”

Thankful and humbled to be selected for the fellowship, Hall looks forward to representing St. Bonaventure on a national platform.

“I am grateful for the support from the Jandoli School in particular and St. Bonaventure as a whole, without which I would not have a chance to do something as exciting … as the Carnegie Knight Fellowship,” Hall said.

This year on campus Hall is vice president of the Student Government Association Executive Board and is a student Admissions Ambassador. She previously participated in the American Advertising Federation and Team Bona’s, a sports marketing and promotions club.

When she was looking at colleges, Hall considered going to a larger school.

“I’m really glad I didn’t. People overlook smaller schools, but the opportunities that Bonaventure has given me are amazing,” she said.

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About the University: The nation’s first Franciscan university, St. Bonaventure University is a community committed to transforming the lives of our students inside and outside the classroom, inspiring in them a lifelong commitment to service and citizenship. In 2020, St. Bonaventure was named the #2 regional university value in New York and #3 in the North by U.S. News and World Report.