Foundation Scholar Kevin Short
The Chicago Chapter of the Circumnavigators Club and Northwestern University are sponsoring Kevin Short to make a circumnavigation in 2012 while conducting research on a topic which he has selected. Read article on his win. Kevin's topic is the "Digital Citizen, a global investigation of how information and communications technology (ICT) fosters civic engagement and government accountability". Read Kevin's blog and see his photos. |
Background on Kevin Short
Kevin was born just outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1991 and moved to Trabuco Canyon, California in 1998. Throughout his adolescence, Kevin was active on the basketball courts and the theater stages. At Mission Viejo High School, Kevin helped organize the Model United Nations conference and was a cast member of the school's sketch comedy and news TV show. Kevin graduated with an International Baccalaureate Diploma and delivered the school's commencement speech.
Kevin is a junior at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, studying broadcast journalism, international studies, and environmental policy. Short has spent time working with the World Resources Institute, City of Chicago Department of Environment, and the OC Weekly newspaper. Short has also reported overseas twice in Amman, Jordan with Refugee Lives, depicting the experiences of Iraqi and Palestinian refugees in an urban context. Short recently spent time filming a self-produced documentary in the public hospitals of Kigali, Rwanda about the nation's health care system.
Back at Northwestern, Kevin co-founded and led NU Gives Back, a university-wide day of service and civic engagement. Kevin currently is a weekly anchor and reporter for the Northwestern News Report. This spring, Kevin will complete his journalism residency at the Times Online in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Kevin Short's Research Topic
As an aspiring international journalist seeking to shed light on new paths to global change, Kevin Short is fascinated by the potential innovations that developments in ICT, Information and Communications Technology, have created.
Kevin will investigate how the rise of these digital technologies fosters two emergent trends: a) the promotion of government accountability through increased informations flows, and b) civic engagement in the form of public discourse online.
Kevin'g goal is to create a "Best Practices Guide" that would assist start-ups and new ICT users in any part of the world to handle obstacles in implementation, usage, and scaling. This would help excluded groups to participate in holding their governments accountable and promote positive social change.
Itinerary of Circumnavigation (actual)
This the list of the countries Kevin visited during his circumnavigation in the summer of 2012.
- South Africa -- March 23, 2012
- Tanzania -- June 12, 2012
- Ukraine -- June 22, 2012
- Turkey -- July 4, 2012
- Jordan -- July 8, 2012
- India -- July 16, 2012
- Thailand -- July 27, 2012
- New Zealand -- July 31, 2012
- Argentina -- August 14, 2012
- Brazil -- August 19, 2012