Graduating senior Catherine “Cat” Carroll (majors in journalism and mass communication, international studies and German with certificates in public policy, European studies, Middle East studies and Arabic language and culture) has been awarded a 2025 Reporting Fellowship by the Pulitzer Center.
Carroll’s project “Critical Care: Two Nations, One Crisis, and the Race for Healthcare Workers” will report on the recently revitalized worker migration program in Austria that brings trained nurses from the Philippines. While much of Carroll’s reporting will be done out of Vienna, the nation’s capital, she will also travel to the Tyrol region of Austria to explore differences in the experiences of nurses being placed in rural settings. “Reporting on regional differences will enable me to bring to light the nuanced political dynamics that influence public reaction to this worker migration program across Austria,” Carroll says. “I will be conducting interviews with nurses who have recently moved to Austria as part of this program but also nurses who moved to Austria as part of the original version of this program half a century ago”. Hearing the stories of these two groups will help Carroll identify key differences in the revitalized program and enable her to assess the effectiveness of the improved integration measures Austria has introduced and promoted.