Education news

When high school seniors from the School Without Walls in Washington, DC were asked what they've heard lately about Haiti by visiting Pulitzer Center journalists, they responded, "not much." Almost 10 months after the earthquake, media attention on Haiti has faded. The country's struggles have not.

On Wednesday October 6, experts and advocates discussed methods to improve water, sanitation and hygiene facilities and instruction for school children in the developing world.

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.

Four freelance journalists from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting shared their perspectives on the future of journalism in a speech Monday night.

In November, the Pulitzer Center will be presenting the Global Gateway educational program at the National Social Studies Supervisors Association (NSSSA) Annual Conference and the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) Annual Conference, both in Denver, Colorado.

NSSSA Annual Conference

A $100,000 two-year grant from The McCormick Foundation will help to expand the Pulitzer Center's Global Gateway program in Chicago.

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