Washington University Undergraduate Research Symposium: Janice Cantieri on Kiribati

Janice Cantieri, the 2014 Pulitzer Center Campus Consortium student fellow from Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL), is one of WUSTL's 2015 Class Acts in Shaping the Future. To commemorate this honor, WUSTL's Diane Toroian Keaggy interviewed Cantieri about her her long journey to Kiribati, what motivated her to travel there, and the hope she sees for the coastal communities in that region. Cantieri presents her reporting during the Undergraduate Research Symposium on Friday, April 17.

During summer 2015, Cantieri traveled to Kiribati, an island nation in the Pacific Ocean, for her undergraduate research and as a Pulitzer Center student fellow. She found and shared the stories of a resilient community working to combat rising sea levels. Cantieri, who graduates this spring from WUSTL, stays in touch with her host families through email and told Keaggy that she would like to continue her research after graduation.

"Ultimately, she would like to do more immersive reporting or humanitarian aid work in other corners of the globe. Where others may see crisis, Cantieri sees hope," wrote Keaggy in her profile of Cantieri as part of a series focused on the graduating class of 2015, what some members have done while at WUSTL and where they may be heading.

"When you see all of these big, big problems in the world, it's easy to give up and say, 'We're all sinking,'" Keaggy quotes Cantieri as saying in her article. "But the people in Kiribati aren't giving up. They are doing small things. Hopefully, stories like that theirs will inspire others to do small things in their lives to help. I don't want people to give up."

To read the full interview with Cantieri, visit the Washington University in St. Louis Commencement website.

Cantieri and other students share their work and research on a diverse array of topics at the Undergraduate Research Symposium on Friday, April 17.

Undergraduate Research Symposium
Friday, April 17
4:00 - 6:30 pm
Washington University in St. Louis
Opening Remarks and Keynote: Laboratory Sciences Building
Poster Session: Olin Library
St. Louis, MO 63130