{"id":4763,"date":"2020-05-11T10:53:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-11T14:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/?p=4763"},"modified":"2020-05-11T12:12:24","modified_gmt":"2020-05-11T16:12:24","slug":"animated-short-inspires-pulitzer-grant-winning-proposal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/2020\/05\/11\/animated-short-inspires-pulitzer-grant-winning-proposal\/","title":{"rendered":"Animated Short Inspires Pulitzer Grant Winning Proposal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Colleen<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Media Studies senior Colleen Digney recalls that as a sophomore, she came across the animated short, \u201cThe Boy and The Landmine<\/a>,\u201d which explores the devastating effects of dormant landmines on Vietnamese communities. Two years later, the seed planted by the three-and-a-half-minute film inspired a story proposal that won her a prestigious reporting travel grant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Pulitzer Center\u2019s student reporting fellowship<\/a> awards selected student journalists \u2014 including one each year from Hunter College \u2014 with a $3,000 grant to travel to a country of their choice and report on an underreported issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI spent a lot of time thinking of different topics (for my proposal),\u201d said Digney, \u201cbut once I had this idea, I instantly knew that was it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Digney is not the first Pulitzer grant winner to investigate the landmine issue. One of the 2017 reporting fellows produced the documentary \u201cThis Little Land of Mines<\/a>,\u201d on the Laotian effort to clear unexploded ordnance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis year I was very pleased to see a proposal on a related topic,\u201d said director of the Pulitzer Center\u2019s Campus Consortium Reporting Fellow program Kem Sawyer. \u201cIt’s a story that will need to be told again and again \u2014 until the land in southeast Asia is made safe and becomes free of landmines. It’s also a story that will need to be told more than once so that history will not repeat itself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each year, over 15,000 Vietnamese citizens are killed by uncleared landmines from the Vietnam War.  One in five victims is a child. Undetonated bombs are often mistaken for toys, as they match the approximate size of a baseball.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Focus on productive land use<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Digney will be reporting primarily on PeaceTrees<\/a>, a nonprofit organization with headquarters in Qu\u1ea3ng Tr\u1ecb Province, Vietnam, and Seattle. PeaceTrees has a unique focus on land development, not only on the clearing of landmines, but on the productive use of land once it is cleared. PeaceTrees has said it has removed over 110,000 undetonated ordnance and used the 1,500+ acres of cleared land to build kindergartens, libraries, community centers, trees and family homes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The removal of each landmine costs up to $1,000, with the monetary burden lying on private donors and nonprofits. The area of Qu\u1ea3ng Tr\u1ecb Province has a high percentage of school dropouts, in part due to the physical danger of walking to school on uncleared land. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Digney\u2019s story will focus on cleared land, what is being done with it, and how it fosters community development. She will spend her two-week stay in Qu\u1ea3ng Tr\u1ecb Province visiting sites including the Danaan Parry Landmine Education Center in \u0110\u00f4ng H\u00e0 and the Ba L\u00f2ng Peace and Friendship Community Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cColleen is one of our star student journalists. She is a tenacious reporter and superb storyteller, so I know she will do a great job on this important story.\u201d<\/p>\u2014 Sissel McCarthy<\/em>, director, Journalism Program<\/em><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cColleen is one of our star student journalists.\u201d said director of the Journalism Program Sissel McCarthy. \u201cShe is a tenacious reporter and superb storyteller, so I know she will do a great job on this important story.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Read more in our related profile, “Colleen Digney \u2014\u00a0Years In The Making<\/a>“].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Digney will graduate this May with a Bachelor of Arts in Media Studies with a minor in Journalism and Political Science. Digney\u2019s accolades include internships at Weill Cornell Medicine and the online newspaper This Is The Bronx. She is currently one of two CUNY students working at Late Night with Seth Meyers as a social media intern. Upon graduation, she plans on pursuing a career in emerging media. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI kind of fell into social media,\u201d Digney said. \u201cWorking in the field, I found a love for it and the experience has improved my writing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

COVID-19 has delayed the Pulitzer fellowship, but Sawyer ensured Digney\u2019s story will not go untold. When conditions are safe, Digney will commence her travels to Qu\u1ea3ng Tr\u1ecb Province. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt every internship I\u2019ve had, I\u2019ve been told to travel. I applied to many abroad opportunities because I wanted new experiences,\u201d said Digney. \u201cWorking on something you\u2019re passionate about in a new environment is so valuable and I am grateful for the opportunity to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bailey Huebner is a journalism student in her junior year. She transferred to Hunter College after receiving her Associate in Arts from Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, N.C.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A short film that Media Studies major Colleen Digney saw as a sophomore inspired her winning grant proposal to report on land mines and land use in Vietnam. Find out more about the $3,000 Pulitzer Center fellowship and her reporting plans. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":4767,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,10,1,18,14],"tags":[64],"class_list":["post-4763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-internships","category-fellowships-scholarships","category-homepage_news","category-journalism-program-news","category-student-work","tag-pulitzer-center"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4763"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4837,"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4763\/revisions\/4837"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}