Johns Hopkins SAIS Student Wins Prestigious OPC Foundation Award

Lisa Martine Jenkins, a first-year student at SAIS Europe studying Energy, Resources and Environment, has been awarded an Overseas Press Club Foundation Scholar Award to help start her journalism career. Lisa was among 15 aspiring foreign correspondents selected for the award from a pool of 175 applicants from 50 different colleges and universities. Her award will support her to work with the Associated Press in Mexico City.

With a specific interest in international food policy, Lisa is exploring its impact on health, the environment and the global economy. Before attending Johns Hopkins SAIS, Lisa was involved in media in California and graduated from the University of California-Berkeley with a degree in English and Political Science.

The OPC Foundation award is given to current American graduate students with the goal of becoming foreign correspondents. As part of the application, applicants must provide an analytical writing sample highlighting their talent and interest in global affairs. Lisa wrote on the food crisis engulfing Turkey, which is a major agricultural exporter and yet struggles to feed numerous migrants and refugees from neighboring states. Lisa plans to continue to explore her interest in food policy while adding to her existing language abilities in her second year at the school.