Soldan ISHS to Host Global Gateway Presentation

St. Louis—Soldan International Studies High School will host an open forum with international journalist Ruthie Ackerman and award-winning photographer Andre Lambertson on Thursday, January 17, at 1:00 p.m. Ackerman and Lambertson will speak with area students about their work covering the aftermath of the Liberian civil wars and the rehabilitation of former child soldiers. Soldan’s Model United Nations Club is partnering with the Pulitzer Center’s Global Gateway program to sponsor the event.

As a Global Gateway project, Ackerman and Lambertson traveled from Staten Island to Liberia over the course of several weeks to examine the process of reintegrating – and ultimately rehabilitating – the former child soldiers now on both sides of the ocean. Students from Soldan and several county schools were able to communicate with them via a blog set up on the Global Gateway website. The forum on January 17 will allow the students to meet the journalists for the first time and ask them questions face-to-face. Participants will include high school students from Maplewood-Richmond Heights, Crossroads, Rosati Kain and Soldan.

Several of Soldan’s participating students are Liberian refugees who shared their experiences as part of the program. These students will have a chance to meet with the panelists in private.

The goal of the World Security Institute's Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting is to raise the standard of coverage of global affairs, and to do so in a way that engages both the general public and government policy-makers. The Pulitzer Center created the Global Gateway program as a way of bringing together high school students with journalists covering lesser-known stories.

In addition to the Internet blogs and open forum, Soldan students conducted their own research into the Liberian civil wars and the rehabilitation of refugees taking place in the United States. The classroom discussions and research were led by Soldan Communication Arts teachers Dawn McClain and Kelly Moore, whose curriculum plan is featured nationally on the Pulitzer Center website.

For more information about the project, contact Dr. Hamid Azimi, Director of Athletics and Activities and Model UN Faculty Advisor, at 314.799.5800 or Hamid.Azimiaraghi@slps.org.