Meet The Pros At WCC

Meet The Pros At WCC                                   

Despite the fact that there are over a million systematic crises going on throughout the world, many of them are extremely under reported. On Thursday, April 25, Westchester Community College hosted a “Meet the Pros” event on their campus. This event looked deeply into two journalists who traveled the world in order to educate the United States on just a few of these under reported issues. The two journalists that were hosting the event were Pulitzer Center grantee, Allison Shelley, and the 2012 student fellow from George Washington University, Melissa Turley. Both young women dove into discussing their work with graphic images and descriptive stories.

Allison Shelley

Allison Shelley is a documentary photographer and multimedia creator. She formally worked for the Washington Times and Education Week newspapers. Now she is a freelancer focusing mostly on maternal health issues that affect young woman in other parts of the world. During the event, she discussed her research done in Haiti starting in early 2010. The audiences’ eyes were glued open as they saw the explicit images she portrayed on the screen. Despite her calm and soft-spoken tone, anyone who entered the room could tell the emotional investment she had on the woman she met during her travels.

Melissa Turley

The other remarkable young woman who embarked on a journey to help inform the people of troubles in other parts of the world was Melissa Turley. Turley was this past years’ winner of the Pulitzer Center Campus Consortium International Reporting Student Fellow from George Washington University. Although she was only a college student, she embarked on a dangerous and mind-blowing journey to South Africa to report on women being neglected and abused in the area. The young lady, approximately the same age as the majority of the student in the audience, gave the impression of being extremely mature. One could simply tell by looking at her demeanor that this woman had been drastically impacted by the events she witnessed during her abroad study.

After the moving event of pictures, video, and stories, told by two remarkable women, was a meet and greet. This was where students and faculty could interview the ladies on any personal questions they didn’t discuss in their presentation. Chaos struck the room as multiple students rushed up to the woman in hopes of attaining an interview to remember. Although the Pulitzer Center journalists were only at WCC campus for a short while, their stories will forever impact the audience who opened their hearts and minds to the issues they discussed. 

Some More Links on Meet the Pros:

http://pulitzercenter.org/campus-consortium/westchester-community-college

http://pulitzercenter.org/event/pulitzer-center-symposium-westchester-community-college

http://vikingnews.net/news/2012/11/10/pulitzer-center-reporters-to-visit-campus-two-day-event-partnership-coordinated-by-professor/