Pulitzer Center Update

Education news

The latest Pulitzer Center education news and classroom visits.

Pulitzer Center journalists inform students on water related issues

Peter Sawyer said 4,500 children under the age of 14 die every day because of water-related diseases.

Sawyer was one of three speakers from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting who spoke about the worldwide water crisis from a journalistic perspective Thursday in Ballroom B of the Student Center.

Sawyer, a journalist for the center, said the role of the center's journalists is to tell the world about issues that are for the most part unknown.

"884 million people don't have access to clean drinking water," Sawyer said.

Announcing the 2010 Student Reporting Fellows!

Students at Campus Consortium member schools were eligible to apply for reporting fellowships of up to $2,000 each and the opportunity to work with the Pulitzer Center staff on an international reporting project.

This year's student reporting fellows:

Elwood Brehmer, University of Wisconsin-River Falls: This project will study the challenges declining Yukon River salmon returns, high fuel costs and the 2009 flood have caused for those living along the river in the Alaskan bush.

Ninth Grade Students Learn from a Crisis Reporter

Students in the 9th grade have spent the semester working on action projects built around international crises such as the quake in Haiti and the war in Afghanistan. They have been spearheading plans that range from raising money for schools to establishing pen pals in distressed countries. On Monday, May 3, the 9th grade students attended a presentation by and discussion with Jason Motlagh, a reporter who has spent the last several years writing from Afghanistan. He also represented the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, with whom the students have been working.

Heat of the Moment: Global Gateway in St. Louis

In January 2010, Pulitzer-sponsored journalists Jennifer Redfearn, William Wheeler and Anna-Katarina Gravgaard visited more than fifteen middle and high schools and three universities in the St. Louis area. They spoke about their experiences reporting on the issues surrounding climate change in the Carteret Islands and South Asia, respectively. Their discussions with the students ranged from the environmental, social, and political implications of climate change, to the technical and educational sides of a career in journalism, to news literacy and the changing media landscape.