Eight U.S. journalists have been awarded four-month fellowships to focus on international affairs in the Pew Fellowships in International Journalism at SAIS. The fellowships provide early- and mid-career U.S. journalists with an opportunity to study international affairs and to do in-depth reporting overseas. The program, held each semester, began in 1998 and is funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts.

"This is our fourth group of fellows and increases the number of countries to which we will have sent journalists to more than 40," said John Schidlovsky, director of the Pew Fellowships and a veteran foreign correspondent.

The fellows and the countries on which they will focus are Raney Carol Aronson, associate producer, ABC News--India; Anne Barnard, reporter, Philadelphia Inquirer--Russia; Jimmie L. Briggs, freelance reporter, New York--Uganda; Leslie Knopp, reporter, KGW-TV, Portland, Ore.--Indonesia; David Aquila Lawrence, freelance reporter, Albion, Maine--Iraq; Andrew Metz, reporter, Newsday--Middle East; Laura Peterson, freelance reporter, Orinda, Calif.--Turkey; Janet Reitman, freelance reporter, New York--Sierra Leone.

The Pew Fellows arrive at SAIS on Jan. 17 to begin a two-month Washington-based program of studies, including special daily seminars on international topics; Pew Fellows also are invited to audit SAIS classes in international affairs. Each fellow then travels overseas for five weeks to report a specific news story. This semester's group will report on topics that include corruption and politics, environment, AIDS prevention, child soldiers, international labor regulations, disputes over water resources, ethnic conflict, humanitarian assistance and economic growth and development.

The Pew Fellows return to SAIS for two weeks to prepare their reports, which are offered to news organizations and excerpts of which are published at http://www.pewfellowships.org, the program Web site.

The Pew Fellows were selected by a panel of distinguished journalists and scholars that included Seymour Topping, administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes; Robert DeVecchi, adjunct senior fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations; Loren Jenkins, senior editor of National Public Radio; Simon Li, foreign editor of the Los Angeles Times; Phyllis McGrady, vice president and executive producer, ABC News; Deborah Potter, executive director of NewsLab; Nadya Shmavonian, independent consultant and former executive vice president of the Pew Charitable Trusts; and David Zucchino, assistant to the editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer.