Poojasai Kona is a freshman at Texas A&M University studying International Affairs.

“Everyone should have the opportunity to express themselves — and that’s what the passing of a New Voices law in Texas helps ensure. If such censorship of student journalists is present, how will we accurately represent diverse groups of students and ideas?”

What I Do

Kona got her start with New Voices Texas as a North Texas Regional Organizer, later taking up the position as the State Organizing Officer. Her work with advancing Texas’s student press rights earned her recognition from the Texas Association of Journalism Educators, naming her the Texas Student Press Rights Advocate of the Year in 2025.

Now, entering her third year with New Voices Texas, and as a College Outreach Specialist, Kona hopes work with not only her fellow NVT leaders to strengthen student press rights in the state of Texas, but alongside college professors and student journalists to advance press rights within college newsrooms. To do so, she hopes to better understand the needs of college journalists and faculty, allowing her to support them more effectively while ensuring New Voices Texas continues to preserve, protect and advance student press rights at the collegiate level in the state of Texas.