Welcome to a reinvigorated OnPoverty.org, the work of students from a variety of disciplines at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va. This site is intended to be a meeting ground for professional journalists who cover issues related to poverty, class, and economic justice. By providing up-to-date news, we inform on the state of the poor in U.S. media, but our mission is broader than that. We aspire to create a forum for journalists to synthesize their ideas and experiences, increase interconnectivity in the media community and, ultimately, upgrade the coverage of poverty in the United States. Through fresh resources and a variety of opportunities to exchange insights with one another, we hope to generate productive discussion that will, in time, catalyze the formation of a professional association of poverty journalists to confer upon the coverage of the poor the same specialty status coverage of the other end of the economic spectrum has been given, thanks to the professionalization of business and financial journalism.
First and foremost, this site is intended to be a conversation. That means we’re eager to hear from you. Feedback about our program, relevant works you’d like us to link to, and contributions to our blog will sustain and nourish this project. Get to know us; get to know one another. Jump in!
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KAYLA WELCH is a junior at Washington and Lee University who, after painful contemplation, is pursuing a Spanish major with two minors: Mass Communications and Latin American and Caribbean Studies. Coming from the heart of the Rust Belt outside of Pittsburgh, Pa., Kayla was unsettled by the lack of attention given to poverty in her community; this background led her to join the OnPoverty team in 2009.
KELLY MAE ROSS is a junior from Endicott New York. She is double majoring in Journalism and Politics, and she hopes to help make the OnPoverty site an effective and useful tool for journalists.
ELISE HANSEN is a junior from Lexington, Virginia. She is majoring in mathematics and plans to minor in Poverty and Human Capabilities Studies. She will devote the hours not consumed by Abstract Algebra problems to news-gathering and writing for onPoverty.org. She hopes the site will help illuminate the diversity and prevalence of poverty in a “land of plenty.”
STEPHANIE KRASNOV is a junior from Chapel Hill, North Carolina double majoring in Mass Communications and Art History. Her Volunteer Venture trip to Charleston, South Carolina spurred her interest in poverty studies and this website is her way of helping spread the issues and current news about poverty to not only journalists, but also the public.
RYAN SCOTT is a first-year from the fine state of Alabama. He is tenatively planning to major in Mass Communications. He became concerned with the coverage of poverty after realizing that the 20,000 homeless individuals in his home city of Birmingham were invisible and silent, and that the media so far has failed its duty to provide them with a voice.
ALICIA BARGAR is a junior from Spartanburg, South Carolina, who is double majoring in physics and computer science. She joined the onPoverty team as the technology advisor to help revamp the site and keep onPoverty.org as up-to-date as its content and crew.
LEE DAVIS is a junior from Memphis, TN, majoring in Computer Science with a minor in Mathematics. He joined the site as a technical advisor to help maintain the site and shed light on those that struggle daily to survive.
