Department of Communication, Stanford University — comm.stanford.edu
Stanford Homepage

2008 Daniel Pearl Intern Chosen

Jennifer Martinez
Jennifer Martinez
Jennifer Martinez is working toward a master’s degree in communication, specializing in journalism, after earning a bachelor’s degree with honors in international relations at Stanford in 2007. She will work in the London bureau of the Wall Street Journal this summer.

The internship was established to commemorate the work and ideals of Pearl, a 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, Martinez described three Hurricane Katrina survivors whom she had written about and added, “Daniel Pearl understood that readers are better able to grasp the magnitude of international tragedies by weaving narratives of the people who experienced them into his writing. In every facet of his reporting, Pearl strived to tell the stories of those who were overlooked and hidden in the shadows.”

Martinez is from San Jose, and has had previous journalism internships at the San Jose Mercury News and the Knight Ridder Washington Bureau.

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.

Jennifer Martinez's winning essay: