Education news

How the Pulitzer Center uses technology and new media platforms to connect students with the global issues shaping their future.

This summer the Pulitzer Center partnered with Free Spirit Media to explore the local implications of the global issues we cover.

Students attend the World Affairs Seminar to learn about water, and go home with a better sense of their world.

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.

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.

Featured in The Leader Journal of the NSSSA

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.

Tatum Taylor, Pulitzer Center

The Pulitzer Center was in Atlanta last week for the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) Annual Conference, with more than 3,000 educators who had gathered to share the latest research and ideas in social studies education and to acknowledge the role of social studies in shaping students' global awareness.

Ecology of Education, a multi-author blog dedicated to exploring and enriching debate surrounding education issues, featured the Pulitzer Center's Global Gateway initiative in, "The Pulitzer Center - Relevant Learning, Authentic Engagement," excerpted below.

The Pulitzer Center - Relevant Learning, Authentic Engagement

Jason Flom

Ecology of Education

Sean Gallagher visited classes and spoke at Kent State University in Akron, Ohio, on Oct. 26. He discussed his experience in international multimedia journalism, including his climate change project, Desertification in China.KentNewsNet.com covered Sean's speaking event and quoted Barbara Hipsman, associate professor for the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, as saying, "We wanted him to focus on passion and how you can go anywhere and do what you want to do. And that's exactly what he did."

Taking an opportunity to broaden their view of the world around them, 13 area middle school and high school students recently took a trip to gain new perspectives on issues that have impact globally as well as locally.

Beginning Monday, July 27, 2009, the St. Louis Beacon is featuring one student essay per day on its website starting with Parkway West High School rising junior Hope Bretscher's essay and commentary. Click here to view the student essays featured at the St. Louis Beacon.