Sarah Trent (’20) Wins Prestigious Overseas Press Club Award

Roy Rowan’s son Marc and Sarah Trent, winner of the 2020 Roy Rowan Scholarship from the Overseas Press Club Foundation February 28, 2020.

Sarah Trent, a second-year student at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, received an Overseas Press Club Foundation Scholar Award at the OPC’s annual ceremony in New York Feb. 28, marking an unbroken decade of honors for Berkeley Journalism students in the annual competition.

Sarah was among 16 aspiring foreign correspondents selected by a panel of leading journalists from a pool of 175 applicants from 50 different colleges and universities. Sarah was selected for the Roy Rowan Scholarship, as well as fellowship placement with The Wall Street Journal in Hong Kong.  

Rowan—who died in 2016— served Time magazine for 35 years as bureau chief in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Rome, Tokyo, Bonn and Chicago, and as assistant managing editor for Life magazine. As a foreign correspondent, he covered the civil war in China, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War and was among the last Americans evacuated from Saigon by helicopter in 1975.

Roy Rowan in 1949 in Hong Kong, courtesy Rowan family.

Rowan’s son Marc presented Sarah with the award. 

An environmental reporter with expertise in business, agriculture, and economic development, Sarah has recently covered, among other stories, the cashmere industry in Mongolia and how overfishing and climate change threaten food security in the Philippines. She looks forward to returning to Asia after she graduates in May.

“Asia is one of the regions first and hardest hit by climate change and is at the heart of global supply chains,” Sarah said. “Reporting about industry and the environment is so important for revealing the invisible threads that connect American habits and decisions with livelihoods all over the world, not to mention our interconnected futures.”  

As the 20th student honored with the scholarship, Sarah says it’s fitting since she will share with Rowan the experience of reporting in Hong Kong.

Among the Berkeley Journalism students whom the OPC has recognized over the last decade are Rachel Mueller (‘20), JoeBill Muñoz (‘19), Serginho Roosblad (‘18), Levi Bridges (’17), Alissa Greenberg (’16), Ted Andersen (’16), James Reddick (’15), Mateo Hoke (’14), Xiaoqing Pi (’13), Lauren Rosenfeld (‘12) and Mark Oltmanns (‘11). 

“The OPC is a storied institution in American journalism with a long tradition of recognizing promising talents who are keen to report on stories in the public interest outside of their immediate world,” said Edward Wasserman, dean of Berkeley Journalism. “For many winners from UC Berkeley, the honor helped launch their careers. Sarah’s highly deserving, and we’re all delighted for her.”  

The Overseas Press Club of America is the nation’s oldest and largest association of journalists engaged in international news. It was founded in 1939 in New York by nine foreign correspondents, and has grown to nearly 500 members worldwide. The club’s mission is to uphold the highest standards in news reporting, advance press freedom and promote good fellowship among colleagues, while educating a new generation of journalists.