December 4, 2003

Recent Boise State Grad Earns Prestigious Pew Journalism Award

Sadie Babits, an August 2003 Boise State University political science graduate and former host of All Things Considered on NPR News 91, has been awarded a spring 2004 Pew Fellowship in International Journalism at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. Babits will report on water rights and supply issues in Kenya for Arizona Public Radio (KNAU), where she currently hosts Morning Edition. “Kenya’s second highest peak, Mt. Kenya, is considered a ‘main water tower’ in the country and it is beginning to dry up,” Babits said. “Many large- and small-scale farmers rely on the mountain’s water to feed their crops, but with legal limits set on the amount of water they can use, farmers are beginning to fight amongst each other over water rights. It’s a story about water supply, management and rights — an issue not all that different from what’s surrounding the use and management of water in the American West.” Babits added that the Pew Fellowship will allow her to pursue this environmental story, “and hopefully provide some perspective as to why Americans should be interested in and concerned about what is happening in far-off places like Kenya.” Babits was one of only 10 U.S. journalists to receive the four-month fellowship, part of a program aimed at increasing the quality of international news in the U.S. media. Other fellowship recipients will report from Cuba, Japan, Mexico, Namibia, Papua New Guinea, Russia, Rwanda, Turkey and Venezuela as part of the program, which combines nine weeks of academic study with six weeks of individual overseas reporting. “Of the 98 journalists we’ve selected in our six-year history, more Fellows — 31 to be exact — have gone to Africa than any other continent, reflecting our view that Africa deserves more coverage in the U.S. media,” said John Schidlovsky, director of the Pew International Journalism Program. Babits joins an elite group of professional journalists in earning this award, including: Sara Colt, senior producer, David Grubin Productions, New York; Molly Hennessy-Fiske, staff writer, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.; Nathan Hodge, reporter, Defense Week, Washington, D.C.; Michael Kavanagh, assistant producer, WNYC Radio, New York; Kira Kay, freelance TV producer, New York; Matthew O’Neill, producer, Downtown Community Television Center, New York; Siobhan Roth, reporter, Legal Times, Washington, D.C.; Eric Sabo, freelance writer, New York; and Kathryn Schulz, managing editor, Grist Magazine, Seattle. -30- Media Contact Kathleen Craven communications and marketing 208 426-3275