2025 Investigative Reporting (Large Newsroom) Winner

About the Winner:

“Frozen Out” exposes decades of state neglect in maintaining rural public schools in Alaska — many of which serve predominantly Indigenous communities. Reported by Emily Schwing, the story combines rigorous data analysis, immersive field reporting and compelling multimedia to illustrate how systemic inaction has endangered the health, safety and educational equity of thousands of students.

The first story in the investigation centers on a school in the Alaska Interior that is on the verge of collapse. This story was only possible because of Schwing’s years of source-building in Alaska’s Indigenous villages, which few reporters can match. Schwing conducted extensive on-the-ground reporting, climbing into attics filled with bat guano and crawling under buildings to examine their crumbling foundations. 

Comments From the Judges:

“The jaw-dropping pieces of reporting in the first story are continuous. The explanation that the student enrollments are too low to make them worthy for repair. The school asked to show proof it didn’t make repairs to the roof after making requests for 19 years for repaid funding. Students having to share a bathroom. A teacher swinging a tennis racket at a bat while students were in class. Alaska should feel embarrassed.”

“I really liked this story. It shows the tenacity and passion of the education reporter to 1) identify the scaffolding of a story not on the public’s radar, 2) physically take on a story in remote terrain — among communities that are often invisible and difficult to penetrate. It takes a dry subject — delayed maintenance — and makes it come tragically alive. Beautiful photos. Bravo.” 

Photo credits: Emily Schwing