Ananya Chetia ~ আনন্যা |

Data journalist reporting on education, business and climate policies

for Al Jazeera, Columbia Journalism Review, Inside Climate News and more.

Skills

I source, clean and analyze data in Python, R and SQL, develop API-powered tools, scrape with BeautifulSoup, Playwright and PDFPlumber and conduct geospatial analysis.

On the storytelling side, I design and code interactive data visualizations with D3.js, Leaflet.js and HTML/CSS/JavaScript and use scrollytelling techniques to create engaging narratives. I'm also fluent in Adobe Suite (Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, Premiere Pro).

I interview my sources in Assamese, Hindi and English.

Contact me

Email Twitter LinkedIn GitHub
Data driven reporting and projects

I scraped over a dozen shopping brand websites and built a first of a kind dataset showing how size charts varies across fast fashion brands.

What's OFF about vanity sizing
This story looks into how frustrated consumers feel when shopping because there is no universal size guide.
Python Pandas Scrollytelling Illustrator Multi page scraping R

Merged Census and EPA's Superfund sites dataset to investigate which communities were most vulnerable to hazardous sites.

A guilty plea was just the beginning
FOIA requested data and over dozens of violations show how a wood treatment facility caused air pollution and deteriorated the health of residents in a small town in Oregon.
Python Pandas Scrollytelling Illustrator FOIA R API

I scraped dozens of PDFs and multipage websites to find which U.S universities provide financial aid to international students. I am also manually tracking scholarships under investigation.

Financial Aid and Scholarship Tracker
I've developed a scholarship database that tracks college scholarships that have quietly disappeared following investigations by the current administration and legal challenges from conservative nonprofits. I also have a database of how much financial aid U.S universities give international students.
PDF and Multi page scraping GeoPandas Wayback Machine

After converting my scraped csv into a JSON file, I built an interactive clothing size finder.

Find your clothing size
My data project showed that fast fashion brands have widely different size charts. So, I built an interactive size guide for users shopping online. Do you want a top from ASOS, H&M or other low-cost brands? My size guide will inform you which size to get based off of your own measurements.
Javascript
Zohran Mamdani
Chalkbeat
Zohran Mamdani's thin education agenda didn't stop a surge of donations from NYC DOE employees
Zohran Mamdani got the highest number of individual campaign donations from DOE employees this year despite his thin education agenda.
EPP

My website updates every two weeks and shows which universities has EPP filed a complaint against.

Live university complaint tracker
In my upcoming story for Chalkbeat New York, my analysis shows that after the EPP files complaints against race-based or minority scholarships for students of color, universities quietly remove these scholarships or alter the language of it so that it no longer exclusively supports a marginalized community.
Majuli
Chalkbeat
Survey says: High school teachers are least satisfied, students are bored, mixed views on chancellor
The annual NYC school survey reveals a mixed picture: Teacher approval for Chancellor Aviles-Ramos is up, but many students say they don't feel challenged.
Courier Newsroom
Columbia News Service
Courier Newsroom Spent Big on a Meta Ad Blitz in October
The $6 million-plus the progressive 'newsroom' spent on Meta lagged only the official Trump and Harris campaigns.
flood
Mongabay
When books sink underwater in Assam
This story looks into how annual floods in Assam, India disrupts low-income students from accessing their education.
College Sports Pay Gap
The Collegian
College Sports and Gender-Based Wage Gaps
Using federal data I investigated why coaches for men's teams earn significantly more than coaches of women's sports.
Mapping Gallery
Mapping Gallery
Take a look at the few maps I've made throughout my career!
Additional stories
students
Chalkbeat
From TikTok to the ballot: How Mamdani is winning over NYC youth
Students at Bronx Science and Archbishop Molloy discuss why Mamdani's youth, background, and TikTok campaign have won their support.
Majuli
Al Jazeera
On huge river island in India's Assam, annual floods threaten local arts
Women making clay pots using their feet, men-only performances past midnight, and colourful masks to hang on walls among some unique art forms being washed away.
peaker plant
The Collegian
Dominion Energy's Peaker Plant Sparks Concern
Climate activists protest a proposed peaker plant in Richmond, VA.
Methane Leaks
Inside Climate News
Methane Activists in Richmond Detect Dangerous Leaks
Beyond Methane RVA obtained documents revealing hundreds of leaks.
Southside Richmond
Inside Climate News
South Richmond Residents Oppose Fire Training Facility
The proposed facility is set for construction despite its environmental impact on vulnerable residents and a wildlife sanctuary just 100 meters away
Harlem Afterschool
The Uptowner
Nonprofit Loses Funds for Harlem After-School Programs
Parents fear they'll have to work fewer hours.
RGGI Repeal
The Collegian
Richmond citizens confront Youngkin's RGGI repeal
Governor Youngkin's decision to withdraw from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
Turkish Junior Earthquake
The Collegian
'Those are my people' — Junior flies home to help
A Turkish student helps survivors after a devastating earthquake.
Fire Training Facility
The Collegian
Muslim students grapple with vandalism on Richmond mosque
"I haven't told my parents about what happened," Ifti Alam said. "I don't think I will just because it's a matter of safety, and they don't want to hear that a mosque their son goes to got vandalized."

About Me

Ananya Chetia portrait

I'm a data journalist from Assam, India who was raised in Saudi Arabia. I cover education policies, climate change and information warfare with a data driven lens. That includes scraping ugly PDFs and messy websites, creating interactive charts and maps on QGIS and successfully filing FOIA requests. My stories have been recognized by the Society of Professional Journalists' Mark of Excellence Awards and Virginia's press conferences for Best In-Depth News Story. I also won my university's Global Engagement Award and the Student Journalist of the Year award for my role as executive editor of the student paper, The Collegian. Outside of reporting, I'm curled up with a juicy novel, drawing on my ipad (like the potrait here) or curating the perfect spotify playlist.