Elissa Nadworny
Elissa Nadworny reports on all things college for NPR, following big stories like unprecedented enrollment declines, college affordability, the student debt crisis and workforce training. During the 2020-2021 academic year, she traveled to dozens of campuses to document what it was like to reopen during the coronavirus pandemic. Her work has won several awards including a 2020 Gracie Award for a story about student parents in college, a 2018 James Beard Award for a story about the Chinese-American population in the Mississippi Delta and a 2017 Edward R. Murrow Award for excellence in innovation.
Nadworny uses multiplatform storytelling – incorporating radio, print, comics, photojournalism, and video — to put students at the center of her coverage. Some favorite story adventures include crawling in the sewers below campus to test wastewater for the coronavirus, yearly deep-dives into the most popular high school plays and musicals and an epic search for the history behind her classroom skeleton.
Before joining NPR in 2014, Nadworny worked at Bloomberg News, reporting from the White House. A recipient of the McCormick National Security Journalism Scholarship, she spent four months reporting on U.S. international food aid for USA Today, traveling to Jordan to talk with Syrian refugees about food programs there.
Originally from Erie, Pa., Nadworny has a bachelor's degree in documentary film from Skidmore College and a master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.
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NPR spoke with a few student leaders about their graduations speeches and how a not-so-typical senior year inspired their words for the class of 2020.
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High tuition, restrictions on travel and a potential semester online — about a quarter of students are rethinking their college plans, according to a recent survey. Many are thinking of a gap year.
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Colleges might be able to reopen their campuses if they're able to frequently test their students. But can they get tests --- and with budgets already squeezed, will they be able to afford it?
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Like so many sectors of the economy, higher education is taking a big hit from the pandemic. The U.S. Department of Education has so far distributed more than $10 billion in relief funds to colleges.
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The college credit exams were moved online in response to the pandemic. But many students don't have Internet access at home. Up until Friday, one senior planned to take her tests in a parking lot.
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NPR's education reporter talks about what graduating seniors are going through right now as the colleges are closed due to the pandemic and answers their questions.
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NPR's education reporter talks about what graduating seniors are going through right now as the colleges are closed due to the pandemic and answers their questions.
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Congress set aside $350 million to help colleges with "significant unmet needs" related to the pandemic. Most of that money has gone to small schools that serve just a fraction of U.S. students.
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Colleges have been careful to leave the door open on their plans for the fall semester. Most experts say it will be anything but normal. Here's a sampling of how it could look.
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An NPR education reporter takes listener questions on how the pandemic is affecting graduation and college admissions for recent high school graduates, and what to expect next academic year.
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An NPR education reporter takes listener questions on how the pandemic is affecting graduation and college admissions for recent high school graduates, and what to expect next academic year.
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Special education advocates are relieved that the federal law that guarantees a free public education to students with disabilities will remain.