Religion News Service (RNS) and Interfaith America (IA) are pleased to announce that four journalists have been accepted to the 2025-2026 RNS/IA Religion Journalism Fellowship Program.
The 2025-26 fellows are Aminah Malik, Adora Namigadde, Tanya Raghu and Hayden Royster.
The fellowship aims to develop future religion news journalists by deepening their understanding of religious expression in individual lives and civic life and helping them develop skills specific to covering religion, faith, spirituality, interfaith cooperation, and civic pluralism. Returning for its fifth year, the fellowship’s programming will span from September 2025 to May 2026.
Throughout these nine months, fellows will develop the knowledge, tools, and relationships to further a career in religion journalism and cover the role of religion in public life. The program offers mentorship, workshops, editorial meetings and tutoring on critical religion resources.
“Every year, this fellowship program continues to grow in the number and quality of applications, and in the stature of the young reporters who are selected,” says Paul O’Donnell, editor-in-chief at Religion News Service. “We’re pleased to add these new voices to our coverage and to the world of religion journalism.”
Meet the Fellows:
Aminah Malik
Aminah Malik is a recent graduate of Georgetown University, where she completed her Bachelor’s in International Political Economy with a minor in Japanese. She discovered her interest in interfaith relations during a class trip to Amman, Jordan to study Muslim-Christian dialogue. She further explored religious studies by researching Islamophobia with Georgetown’s Bridge Initiative. She enjoys reporting on the way identity impacts daily life, and is excited to continue pursuing her love for writing through reporting on religion.
Adora Namigadde
Adora Namigadde is a journalist with a special love of how people’s faith, beliefs and values shape our world. She has published work for NPR, its Chicago affiliate and National Catholic Register. Namigadde looks forward to focusing specifically on religion as part of this fellowship. Outside of work, Namigadde loves fitness, reading and taking long walks.
Tanya Raghu
Tanya Raghu is an Indian-American journalist from Dallas, Texas, currently pursuing a dual-degree master’s program in Journalism and International Affairs at Columbia University. She holds a B.A. in Middle Eastern Studies, Arabic, and Plan II, an interdisciplinary honors program, from the University of Texas at Austin. Her interest in covering religion has previously led her to profile the only female Hindu priest in New England, chronicle the growth of the Tibetan community in Queens, and shadow a Catholic priest grappling with immigration challenges. She is based in New York City.
Hayden Royster
Hayden Royster is a playwright and journalist based in Oakland, California. Drawn to the intersection of belief, culture, and technology, he has reported on subjects as varied as a historic Black church converted into an artist collective and the overlap between apocalypticism and QAnon. His work has been featured in the Religion News Service, KQED, Berkeleyside, and ARC Magazine, among other outlets. He holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from San Francisco State University and is the current Associate Editor at Saint Mary’s College of California.
In addition to fully paid trips to the Religion News Association Conference in Atlanta and a writing workshop in Chicago, the Religion Journalism Fellowship includes the chance to speak with some of the nation’s leading religion journalists. In previous years the program has invited speakers like Laurie Goodstein, Ruth Graham, Wajahat Ali, and Luis Andres Henao, and RNS’ Jack Jenkins, among others.
The fellows, who are awarded a $4,500 stipend, are expected to report and write at least one feature religion story per month, to be published on RNS and Interfaith America’s platforms.
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Contact:
Susanna Granieri
Religion News Service
[email protected]
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RNS or Religion News Foundation.
