Ventura awarded Nikkei-Columbia Scholarship

Nikkei and the Columbia Journalism School in New York have awarded the annual Columbia-Nikkei Scholarship to Katrina Ventura, a former television and podcast producer from the Philippines.

“I am sincerely humbled and honored to be awarded the Columbia-Nikkei Scholarship,” said 27-year-old Ventura, who has already started graduate studies in data journalism at Columbia. “Having worked in television and podcasts during the Philippine elections, I saw the value of data-driven stories in combating online disinformation. Columbia Journalism School not only provides me with tools to gather and analyze data, it allows me to democratize factual information.”

Ventura graduated magna cum laude in broadcast journalism from the University of the Philippines Diliman in 2018. She then became the youngest executive producer for television and podcasts at Cignal TV in 2019.

Most recently, she was executive producer of the PumaPodcast in the Philippines.

She has won several prizes for her shows, including a Catholic Mass Media Award for best public service program and a Human Rights Press Award. She has produced shows about law, the government, public health and online disinformation.

Established in 2017, the Columbia-Nikkei Scholarship awards $100,000 to an outstanding student residing in Asia who has an interest in data and business journalism.