Master of Environmental Studies Student Report Live from the World Water Forum

March 5, 2012 by Margaret Sanborn in Master of Environmental Studies, Program News, Master of Science in Applied Geosciences

Eleven University of Pennsylvania Master of Environmental Studies students are working as journalists at the sixth World Water Forum in Marseille, France with the Oikos Student Reporter program this week. The students are Aishwarya Nair, Arjun Bhargava, Martine Boswell, Marissa Rosen, Sharon Muli, Michael McCullough, Heidi Travis, Martha Powers, Maria-Tzina Leria, Iliana Sepulveda and Lindsay Shafer; their bios can be found at www.studentreporter.org/reporters. The project is led by Caroline D’Angelo, also a Master of Environmental Studies student and Reporter-in-Residence with the Oikos Student Reporter program.

The World Water Forum is the largest global gathering of water professionals, government officials, and other stakeholders.  Every three years since 1997, representatives from around the world have met to discuss strategies for solving the widespread shortage of clean and readily available water. This year, more than 180 countries were represented by 140 ministerial delegations, with more than 800 speakers and 25,000 participants in all expected to attend between March 12 and March 17, 2012. 

“The Oikos Student Reporter program is an important educational tool for students, allowing them to critically engage and interview high-level professionals through online journalism. It is more crucial than ever to equip students with writing, networking and social media tools to help bridge the communications gap between science, economics and policy. The program also creates youth participation in leading global conferences and connects current and pressing issues with tomorrow’s leaders.” Caroline D’Angelo said.

“The Penn students have interviewed and interacted with some of the top global leaders in water. They are using their background knowledge to debate and examine the complex topics presented here at the Forum.”

The student reporting project was made possible through support from Oikos International, the international student organization for sustainable economics and management, and Penn’s Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and College of Liberal and Professional Studies.

You can read their writings, listen to their interviews, and offer your own comments and contributions at www.studentreporter.org.