Pearl Fellow Residency at Mass Collegeby iBerkshires.com, April 12th, 2006

North Adams - Ghanashyam Ojha, a Senior Reporter for the Kathmandu Post, Nepal’s largest-selling English daily newspaper, will join the MCLA community as a Hardman Lecture Series Journalist-in-Residence.

Serving as a Daniel Pearl Fellow, Ojha will report for the North Adams Transcript and The Berkshire Eagle during his stay from April-August 2006. He will also visit MCLA journalism classes and participate in discussion forums with local journalists. His residency is sponsored in part through the generosity of the Hardman Fund.

In Nepal, Ojha reports on politics, human rights, and the Maoist insurgency. He also has taught English literature and language in the Himalayan White House International College in Kathmandu.

The Daniel Pearl Fellowship, sponsored by the Daniel Pearl Foundation in partnership with the Alfred Friendly Press, honors the life and work of journalist Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal’s South Asia bureau chief, who was killed in Pakistan in 2002. Pearl began his career locally as a reporter with the North Adams Transcript and The Berkshire Eagle.

The previous three Daniel Pearl Fellows have worked at the Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times. All fellows must be “young journalists” from the areas of the world where Pearl worked (South Asia, Middle East, and North Africa).

Robert Bishoff, Chair of the English/Communications Department, applauded the program in Pearl’s honor stating, "The Daniel Pearl Foundation and the Hardman Family Endowment have provided a very significant benefit for our campus and our students.

Not only will the College have an opportunity to meet and learn from an outstanding young international journalist, but a new generation of students will become aware of Daniel Pearl's contributions as a journalist, a citizen, and a former member of the Berkshire County community."