2004 Daniel Pearl Intern Chosen
Ramin Setoodeh |
Ramin Setoodeh, a senior who is minoring in political science, was selected from among 13 applicants for the position. Setoodeh will work in the Hong Kong bureau of the Wall Street Journal this summer.
The internship was established to commemorate the work and ideals of Pearl, Stanford graduate and Wall Street Journal foreign correspondent who was kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan in 2002.
In an essay written as part of the application process, Setoodeh described his affinity for Pearl's work: "He traveled the world and told the stories of ordinary people. Other journalists might associate culture with ethnicity. But Pearl's stories seemed to understand that culture went deeper than skin color -- there was the world of beauty pageant contestants in Jonesboro, Georgia; pharmacists in Bombay, India; carpet weavers in Ben, Iran."
Setoodeh was editor-in-chief of the Stanford Daily during the fall and winter. He has had previous internships at U.S. News & World Report, Stanford Magazine and the Menlo Park Country Almanac. He is from Fresno, California.
A committee of Communication Department faculty members evaluated applicants for the internship. The final decision was made by the Wall Street Journal.
Pearl, a 1985 graduate of Stanford's Department of Communication, was kidnapped in Karachi on January 23, 2002, while working on a story retracing the steps of "shoe bomber" Richard Reid. A month later, on Feb. 21, his captors released a videotape of his slaying. He was 38.
Ramin Setoodeh's winning essay: