St. Bonaventure University’s Christian Gravius, a senior journalism major from Derby, New York, has been selected for a prestigious summer fellowship with Carnegie-Knight News21.

This is the fourth year in a row a St. Bonaventure student has been selected to participate, following Lian Bunny, ’16, Rachel Konieczny, ’17, and Bryce Spadafora, ’18.

Carnegie-Knight News21 is a national 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.

“Christian represents the very best of the Jandoli School and we are proud to support the important journalistic work he will do this summer,” said Aaron Chimbel, dean of the Jandoli School of Communication. “News21 is a life-changing program for young journalists and Christian follows an impressive line of Jandoli School students who have done award-winning work with News21.”

In August, Gravius became the 14^th St. Bonaventure student to earn a Murray Foundation Scholarship.  

“I’m beyond humbled and excited,” said Gravius, who also minors in English. “Just like with the Murray Scholarship, it’s amazing to see our school represented alongside some of the best in the nation. I love that I can represent a school of fewer than 2,000 undergrads while other schools have 40,000 to 60,000 undergrads.”

In addition to Arizona State, Gravius will join students from Appalachian State, DePauw, Dublin City (Ireland) University, Elon, George Washington, Kent State, Louisiana State, Syracuse, University of British Columbia, Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, North Texas, Oklahoma, University of Puerto Rico, Tennessee and Texas.

Gravius spent last summer in Estes Park, Colorado, as the marketing intern for the YMCA of the Rockies, the world’s largest YMCA. He admits he was initially apprehensive about spending another summer so far from home.

“But after I received the nomination from our faculty and I learned more about the program, I couldn’t believe that I almost let the opportunity pass,” he said. “It’s going to be amazing and I can’t wait to get started.”

Twenty-three students from 18 universities and approximately 12 Arizona State students will participate in the 2019 program.

The topic for this year’s project is federal disaster relief — how the federal government has handled natural disasters, ranging from hurricanes to wildfires, over the past several decades.

This semester, Gravius is completing the spring News21 seminar, a weekly online class that concludes in late April. He will head to Arizona in late May for 10 weeks.

The Carnegie Corporation of New York and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation joined forces in 2005 to launch News21 as a cornerstone of the Carnegie-Knight Initiative on the Future of Journalism Education.

More than 500 top journalism students in the U.S. have participated in the landmark national initiative, exploring topics such as gun rights, veterans’ issues, food safety, drinking water contamination, and hate in America. Work produced by News21 has appeared in major media outlets including The Washington Post, NBC News and USA Today.

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About the University: The nation’s first Franciscan university, we believe in the goodness of every person and in the ability of every person to do extraordinary things. St. Bonaventure University cultivates graduates who are confident and creative communicators, collaborative leaders and team members, and innovative problem solvers who are respectful of themselves, others, and the diverse world around them. Named the #1 regional university value in New York and #2 in the North by U.S. News and World Report, we are establishing pathways to internships, graduate schools and careers in the context of our renowned liberal arts tradition.