Rice Student Media has announced the recipients of the 2025 Schumann Brothers Grants, honoring exceptional student work in longform writing and travel journalism.

These competitive grants, funded by the Schumann family, support ambitious projects that reflect the highest standards of narrative nonfiction and journalistic inquiry. This year, both awards went to student journalists affiliated with The Rice Thresher, the student-run newspaper at Rice University.

The year’s Travel Journalism Grant of $5,000 has been awarded to Hongtao Hu for his project, Memory’s Horizon, a reporting enterprise that will follow the life of the recipient’s grandfather from Yanbian — a Korean ethnic minority region in China — to Northeastern University in the U.S.

The grant will supply funding for Hu’s travel to Yanbian, where he plans to document the area’s rich blend of Korean and Chinese cultures and to conduct family interviews.

Hu says the final piece will explore identity, assimilation, and the complexities of being part of the Korean diaspora in modern-day China.

The Written Expression Grant of $2,500 has been awarded to Noa Berz, whose project profiles Rice Ph.D. alumnus Jiankui He ’10, who sparked global controversy with illegal gene-editing experiments on human embryos.

Now back in the lab and pursuing a cure for Alzheimer’s disease, Dr. He will be the subject of a deeply reported narrative exploring the intersections of scientific ambition, ethics, and public redemption.

Dr. Chris Evans, director of Student Media at Rice University, said the winning proposals stood out for their depth, originality, and bold engagement with complex issues.

He praised the students for approaching their work with a seriousness and creativity that mirror the best of professional journalism.

“These students are taking on stories of global significance with a level of rigor, creativity, and ambition that rivals professional journalists,” Evans said. “Their work exemplifies the power of student media to explore complex truths and contribute meaningfully to the public conversation.”

The Schumann Brothers Grants are awarded annually to Rice undergraduates who have published in student media and propose significant independent work in writing or journalism.