It’s out and public and I’m very proud and happy to say: I’m a Solutions Journalism Network 2020 mentee!

What it means:

• I get to exchange monthly with journalists around the world who have ambitious projects to tell the news with an emphasis on what is being done to solve our world’s issues

• I have access to a great new support system and many resources to get moving on the stories I want to research and tell where art and solutions meet!

I’m very humbled to have been selected as part of this new cohort of 47 journalists located all around the world. I went to journalism school thinking I’d learn how to tell stories so I’d help people who read my stories make decisions in their lives: they’d figure out what issues mattered to them most in election times, maybe they’d decide whether or not to buy that Fiona Apple album or go see the latest Brad Pitt movie or simply they’d travel in their mind learning about the different ways people cook rice in different African countries. As I learned more about journalism, what became obvious to me was the power stories had in making people feel like they could gain agency. They could read an article, understand they are part of a body of people who often come together to effect change and maybe take part in that solution also. That’s what I love about solutions journalism: it addresses our world’s problems without showing those problems as knots that can’t be undone. It doesn’t mean the solutions work like magic or aren’t without their shortcomings (and SoJo addresses those), but learning about solutions is also a way to look at the issues with a sharper eye.

Anyway, I have to get to work now so I make the most of this amazing opportunity!