Jem Bartholomew

Alumni Award, Columbia University - Journalism

I never expected my life to unfold this way – flying to New York as a Fulbright scholar feels like I’ve stumbled into one of my own daydreams. Currently, I live in north London and work as a writer and journalist at the Financial Times. I previously graduated with a first-class BA in History from the University of Oxford. Understanding how power operates – and can be effectively challenged – motivates my work. A journalist’s duty, I believe, goes beyond reactively reporting the news, and instead demands identifying unforeseen problems. I’m proud that my writing strives, unashamedly, to make the world a better place. I’ve pursued this in my career so far. While interning at the Guardian, I acted as a researcher on the Cambridge Analytica story, which sounded the alarm for the effectiveness of global privacy laws. After winning the FT Talent Contest on the future of journalism I’ve been working as an FT reporter, where I’ve covered the climate crisis and global divestment campaign that’s seen $8tn in investments start to flee the fossil fuel industry. At Columbia Journalism School, I hope to build on my understanding of systems of power so my own writing can, ultimately, provoke meaningful change.