Start packing your bags, Austin Meyer, because in just a few months you’ll be joining New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof for the reporting trip of a lifetime!
Earlier this year, my colleagues and I judged hundreds of essay and video submissions for Kristof’s annual Win a Trip contest. The competition was steep; applications were still flooding our inbox minutes before the deadline. Of the shortlist of candidates we sent to Kristof, he chose Austin Meyer, a Masters student studying journalism at Stanford University. In his column, Kristof wrote:
I’m delighted to announce that the winner of my annual win-a-trip contest is Austin Meyer, a journalism student at Stanford University. We’ll probably travel to India and Bangladesh, although Congo is an alternate possibility. The runners-up are Ashley Bastock of John Carroll University, Taylor Graham of Ithaca College and Sam Friedlander of University of Pennsylvania. Thanks to the Center for Global Development for helping me pick Austin from a dazzling field of 450 applicants. Stay tuned for a great reporting trip!
From Austin’s essay and video, two things about him were clear: he’s a wonderful storyteller and he’s an eternal optimist. As an undergraduate studying English and creative writing at Stanford University, he wrote fiction and nonfiction, a play, a film, and radio and video documentaries. He also joined the Stanford Improvisers because he wanted to “master not only the art of storytelling, but also the art of listening.” And Austin wants to use those skills to change the world for the better. “From global poverty, to education rates, to health care, I know that progress is possible,” he wrote in his essay.
In response to winning the contest, Austin told me he’s been in a “constant state of delighted shock” since Kristof called to tell him the good news. “I am so incredibly honored. And now, after these past couple days of overwhelming support, I am excited to take the focus off of me and turn my pen, camera, and heart towards the people whose stories deserve all the attention—the people Mr. Kristof and I will meet along our journey.”
As Kristof has noted before, one goal of the annual Win-a-Trip contest is for the winner to inspire other students to become interested in development. “It's so important to engage young people in global development issues, and I hope this contest can be a part of that,” Kristof told us in an email. “We need to build a constituency for global efforts to fight poverty and promote health and nutrition, because the challenge is often about drumming up the political will.”
We at CGD could not agree more, which is why we were thrilled to take part in selecting this year’s Win-a-Trip finalists. We wish Austin best of luck on his trip and I cannot wait to read the stories he writes for the New York Times later this year.
CGD blog posts reflect the views of the authors, drawing on prior research and experience in their areas of expertise.
CGD is a nonpartisan, independent organization and does not take institutional positions.
