Click on the above photo to see a video of our student journalists reporting from Panama. Back row from left to right: Daniel Hentz, Professor Mike Beaudet, José da Silva, Matt Cunha, Danae Bucci, Professor Carlene Hempel and Jordan Erb. Front row left to right: Amanda LaRiviere, Yunjia Hou, Christopher Butler, Estelle De Zan, Katarina Torres Radisic, Alyssa Lukpat and Jane Marks. (Video produced by Professor Mike Beaudet)
Danae Bucci
Danae Bucci is a fifth-year journalism student who was born in Florida but grew up all over the world because she’s a military brat. Inspired by the traveling she did as a child, Danae became interested in journalism as a way to continue her love of experiencing new cultures through news. Now, she is an aspiring broadcast journalist who is particularly interested in social justice stories. She has produced content for NBC, the Colorado Springs Gazette, WHDH, Gannett Newspapers and iFactory. She has also won two New England Emmy awards. In her free time she enjoys hiking, cooking and meeting new people.
Twitter: @DanaeBucci
Christopher Butler
Christopher Butler is a third-year journalism major with a minor in psychology. Growing up in Erie, Pennsylvania, he found his passion for journalism and writing while serving as the founding editor-in-chief of his high school newspaper, The Trojan Voice. He currently serves as editor in chief for The Huntington News, Northeastern’s only independent, student-led newspaper. He also worked for CNBC as an intern on the breaking news and special reports desks, where he wrote feature articles highlighting renewable energy and tech startups. As a psychology student, he is fascinated by the stories and the lives of others, with a particular interest in mental health and social behavior. When he’s not writing, he can be found running, hiking or listening to music.
Twitter: @chrismb15
Matt Cunha
Matt Cunha is a graduate student at the School of Journalism. Born in Maine, Matt did his undergraduate at Husson University in Bangor. After leaving Northeastern, he hopes to become a sports journalist within the New England area, and currently works at the Patriot Ledger in Quincy covering high school sports. produced a sports radio show called “The Drive” in Bangor and an extended internship at WHOU there. He also was an intern at weekly newspaper “The Maine Edge.” During his free time he is probably watching sports.
Twitter: @CunhaMatthew
José da Silva
José da Silva is a third-year journalism student with minors in Spanish and emerging markets. José applied to Northeastern University undecided on his major, but after gaining acceptance, he promptly decided on journalism. Since then, he has written for the soccer magazine These Football Times and Northeastern’s Huntington News and NUSci Mag. After recently completing a six-month stint as a marketing assistant, he hopes to write for more independent magazines in the future.
Twitter: @josegdasi
Estelle De Zan
Estelle De Zan is a Bay-Area native who grew up in a multicultural household in the heart of Silicon Valley. Her father immigrated to the U.S. from France and her mother is a first-generation Salvadoran-American. They ensured that she was raised trilingual and had an appreciation for language learning. Throughout college, Estelle has divided her time among Boston, San Jose, London and France. As a third-year journalism and international affairs double major, she recently interned at Boston Mayor Marty Walsh’s office as his correspondent and a first point of contact for constituent needs. In addition to this, she produces and conducts research for Boston’s Golden Hour Podcast. When she’s not reading or journaling, she can be found watching John Oliver and Bojack Horseman.
Twitter: @estelled1123
Jordan Erb
Jordan Erb is a Montana native and first-year graduate student studying media innovation at Northeastern University. She graduated from the Honors Programs at Boise State University, where she earned a degree in journalism and international relations, a minor in Arabic, and two certificates in Spanish. Jordan has worked at a number of different news outlets including The Independent Record in Helena, Montana, and Boise State Public Radio. While she has reported mostly on local government and politics, she feels drawn to international affairs and hopes to become a foreign correspondent. Her love for international news has led her to Morocco and to Cuba, where she reported on the struggle between church and state in the nation’s post-Castro society. This summer, Jordan looks forward to an internship with the Dow Jones News Fund and with the Indianapolis Star in the fall.
Twitter: @jordanparkererb
Daniel Hentz
Daniel Hentz is a science writer, photographer and multimedia reporter, studying journalism as a master’s student at Northeastern University. Born in rural Western Massachusetts, he completed his undergraduate degree from the Honors School at Providence College in Rhode Island, where he majored in global studies with a minor in ecology and evolutionary biology. Since coming to Northeastern, he has written about the environment, climate change and its intersection with indigenous rights––stories that have drawn him to faroff locations from open ocean observatories along the coast of New England to the inaccessible reefs outside Havana, Cuba. He now works as a digital content producer at Wood Hole Oceanographic Institution on Cape Cod. As a freelance reporter, he has produced podcasts and data-driven pieces, and has been featured with Undark and the Columbia Journalism Review.
Twitter: @danny_hentz
Instagram: @the_hentzoriginal
Yunjia Hou
Yunjia Hou is a graduate student at the School of Journalism. Born and raised in Beijing, China, she became interested in storytelling during her first year in college. She wrote feature stories and ran social media for a student-run magazine. She had an internship at Bloomberg Businessweek/Chinese version, editing politics and real estate news. Hoping to experience different culture, Yunjia decided to pursue a master’s degree in the U.S. She started at Northeastern University in 2018. She had a co-op as a student reporter at Wentworth Institute of Technology and worked for Global Observer, a magazine run by Northeastern’s international students. In the future, she aspires to report international news in both Chinese and English. During her free time, she enjoys taking cycling trips, watching movies and cooking.
Twitter: @Yunjia14
Instagram: @hou.yunjia
Amanda LaRiviere
Amanda LaRiviere is a third-year journalism student with minors in international affairs and Middle East studies. Amanda spent her first semester at Northeastern in Sydney, Australia, where she volunteered at The Big Issue, a not-for-profit magazine. As an aspiring foreign correspondent, Amanda continued her studies through an intensive reporting trip to Cuba. While there, she reported on a Catholic nonprofit and had her story published by the GroundTruth Project. Amanda also studied in Israel in 2019 and photographed a women’s march in Tel Aviv. She has also written for Foundation Medicine, a cancer research laboratory in Cambridge. Currently, Amanda is reporting for the Boston Globe’s metro section through a course at Northeastern. When she is not travelling or reading the news, she is working on a puzzle or exploring the city.
Twitter: @amandalariviere
Alyssa Lukpat
Alyssa Lukpat is a fourth-year journalism major with a minor in computer science. She is a Silicon Valley native and aspiring data journalist. She has written travel content for TripAdvisor and breaking news for The Boston Globe. She also worked for the Huntington News and filmed Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding for a documentary. She is currently a part-time correspondent and web producer for the Globe and a board member of the Asian American Journalists Association in New England. Alyssa loves journalism because she gets to meet interesting people and craft words into a compelling story. When she isn’t working, she loves British TV shows, spin classes and trying different types of cheese.
Twitter: @AlyssaLukpat
Jane Marks
Jane Marks is a fifth-year environmental studies major with a journalism concentration. As a native of Cape Cod, she has a deep appreciation for nature and wanted to turn that passion into a career path. Through her work with the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy, Jane created a fundraiser to raise money for shark research, coordinated a shark education talk at a local elementary school and wrote articles about shark and human interactions. Jane has a goal of making science accessible to the public, taking a co-op at the Marine Biological Labs as a science writer where she reported on topics like bees and insecticide research. Traveling to Cuba last year, Jane reported on the organic farming practices. In her free time, she can be found running, hiking and reading.
Twitter: @JaneSydMarks
Katarina Torres Radisic
Katarina Torres Radisic is a third-year pre-med student studying behavioral neuroscience and journalism. Katarina has always had a passion for communicating with others, particularly about health and medicine, and uses reporting to give voice to vulnerable and marginalized populations in the medical field around the world. This desire led her to engage in a five-week-long trip to Uganda to work on water sanitation and hygiene projects. In the future, she aspires to work with people with dementia and disabilities as a physician and continue her international reporting to make medicine and global health equity understandable to everyone. During her free time, she can be found outdoors or dancing to live music.
Twitter: @katarinaradisic
Alex Lim
Alex Lim is a fifth-year computer science and design major who joins the team to bring its stories to life on the web. After working as a front-end developer, Alex discovered how he could leverage his coding and design background with journalism to tell meaningful stories with data. He’s keen on always exploring new and different forms of digital storytelling. Alex is also one of the founders of the Asian American Journalists Association’s News Nerds affinity group—a community built around this intersection of tech and journalism. An avid typography enthusiast, he hopes to spend more of his free time designing fonts.
Twitter: @journalims
Portfolio: alexanderlim.io
Acknowledgments
Panamá de Cerca is made possible with the generous support of:
Michael Beaudet, Professor of the Practice, College of Arts, Media and Design
Wen Chen, Director, Finance and Operations, Office of the Chancellor
Michael J. Dorfsman, Class of 1970
Jason Duhaime, New Technology Manager, College of Arts, Media and Design
Miguel and Ariel Espino, SUMA Architects, Panama City, Panama
Elizabeth Hudson, Dean, College of Arts, Media and Design
Jonathan Kaufman, Director, School of Journalism
Chris Kelley, Development Officer, College of Arts, Media and Design
Alex Lim, (Web Designer/Developer) Khoury College of Computer Sciences, Class of 2020
Lane Marder, Program Development Manager, Global Experience Office (GEO)
Jonathan Mejia, College of Arts, Media and Design, Class of 2020
Andrea Raynor, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs, College of Arts, Media and Design
The Joe Thomas Explore the World Fund