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UNC student is finalist in New York Times contest

April 8, 2009 -- Tracy Boyer, a graduate student in UNC's School of Information and Library Science, was a finalist in Nicholas Kristof's annual contest for a college student to win journalism trip to Africa. The winner gets to blog for The New York Times online and file videos for the the NYT and YouTube.

Kristof is an op-ed columnist for The New York Times and writes the popular blog, On the Ground. He started the contest after a trip to Darfur left him outraged at the genocide there. Through the contest, Kristof hopes to engage young people about global issues and bring a fresh eye to Africa reporting

Boyer is a regular reader of Kristof's blog, and when he first announced the contest, Boyer was a senior at UNC majoring in multimedia journalism. She was also a board member of SUDAN, a student organization dedicated to raising awareness about the genocide in Darfur. She talked herself out of entering that year, and her regret over that decision motivated her to follow through this year.

"I knew I had to make my entry stand out among the hundreds of other contestants," Boyer said, "so I began thinking about creating an innovative video in addition to the traditional essay. By combining photos, graphics and music, I attempted to make others feel how I passionate I am about advocacy journalism to spark change in our society."

Boyer decided to get a master's degree in Information Science because she wants to learn more about how humans interact with computers and technology. "I am still a journalist at heart," she said, "but I just felt that I had so much more to learn about how to connect with an audience to make lasting impressions with my stories."

Boyer has already started thinking about her application for next year. Bolstered by the excitement of being a finalist, Boyer is determined to be named next year's winner.

View Boyer's contest video here.

UNC Institute for Global Health & Infectious Diseases contact: Lisa Chensvold, (919) 843-5719 or lisa_chensvold@med.unc.edu.