Two weeks ago, the Columbia School of Journalism was generous enough to send me to Philadelphia for AAJA17, the annual conference of the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA).

With that came a plethora of excellent journalists in one building, a ton of networking opportunities, helpful workshops and the beginning of many professional relationships for me.

During my third night in Philadelphia, I witnessed some of the most well-researched journalism I had ever seen. The stories weren’t from big-name anchors however—they were students, just like me.

Meet the Voices program, AAJA’s intensive, summer-long fellowship for journalism students. Voices matches four groups of student journalists with a set of 12 mentors who are also current journalists. Together, they’ve made four long-form multimedia stories, complete with infographics and videos to boot. I’m floored by how well and accurately these students, as well as their technical prowess in putting their stories together. Here they are. Hope you enjoy them!

For Asian Americans, what does it take to confront autism?

By Kristine Tuzon, Aparna Verma, Lawrence Wu and Alexandra Yoon-Hendricks

Families who have members on the autism spectrum might already feel the stigma and shame. But how does the dynamic change when that family is Asian American? This in-depth report looks at both the cultural and medical implications for being Asian American and on the spectrum.

Missed deadline: The delayed promise of newsroom diversity

By Peregrine Frissell, Ala'a Ibrahim, Shiela Raghavendran and Avery Yang

As an Asian American myself, I know how few of me there are in any newsroom across America. But just how many of me are out there? And if there really is a problem with newsroom diversity, what are the country's newsrooms doing about it?

The Immigrant and the Stranger

By Janaki Chada, Ayah Galal, Nisa Khan and Austin Ma

South Philadelphia’s Vietnamese American community is growing. But with that, comes some cultural and language challenges.

Refugee Stories: Navigating Hardship and Resilience in Portland, Detroit and San Francisco

By Jasmine Espy, Rachel Ramirez and Nour Coudsi

As the fallout from the Syrian Civil War continues, the US has seen an increase of refugees into cities like Portland, Detroit and San Francisco. As these refugees struggle to build new lives in a foreign country, they face discrimination and misunderstanding from the residents around them.