Kai Lengwiler of Realgymnasium Rämibühl Zürich examined Switzerland’s fight against drugs, winning News Decoder’s 11th Storytelling Contest. Winners of the 11th News Decoder Storytelling Contest A video report by a high school student in Zurich examining...
Our family used to gather in joy around my grandfather’s couch. He and his sofa are now gone, and I wonder if home will ever be the same. Taken in Shenzhen, China in 2013. The author is hiding behind a cousin, second from right. (All photos courtesy of Li Keira...
A Chinese citizen studying in the U.S., Li Keira Yin wins this month’s Student in the Spotlight award for her contributions to News Decoder’s community. She has published more stories on News Decoder and won more awards than any other student in our 6-½...
In a first, two students from Sierra Leone enrolled at the African Leadership Academy have won the top prize in News Decoder’s Storytelling Contest. Two students from Sierra Leone enrolled at the African Leadership Academy (ALA) in South Africa have won first...
Tibet’s many languages are under threat from Beijing’s policies and economic realities, putting cultural traditions and memories at risk. Tsupkhu Lama in Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh, India in June 2019. (Photo by Li Keira Yin) This story won honorable...
Li Keira Yin of The Thacher School examines the difficulties that minority languages face surviving in Tibet without falling into the trap of concluding that it’s all the fault of the Communist Party leadership in Beijing when economic pressures in a globalized economy are part of the explanation. For her nuanced view, Yin draws from her unique perspective as someone raised in China who is studying in the United States. Her account of the complexities of language in Tibet started when Yin listened to her Chinese grandmother speak a dialect at home while speaking in Mandarin when picking up the phone. “I started wondering why dialects and minority languages have to be overpowered by Mandarin in China, and so I dug deeper,” Yin said. A lesson for other students struggling to understand how their lives fit into the bigger scheme of things.
Exercise: Ask students to discuss when it’s important for authorities to protect minority languages.
Curious about my family’s roots, I visited a remote region of China where minority Uighurs celebrated and laughed despite repression and a pandemic. Uighur Women in Procession at Sunrise, Kashgar, July 2021 (All photos by Li Keira Yin) I took these photos on a...
Four students express frustration, anger and disappointment over climate change and urge world leaders to listen to youth before it’s too late. News Decoder · Youth speak out about climate change Frustrated. Angry. Disappointed. Climate change inspires a mix of...
Students from The Thacher School in California, a News Decoder partner, gained first-hand experience in nonprofit, fashion and television journalism. Elena Townsend-Lerdo interviewed Jonathan Chiu, an editor for the only prison-run newspaper in the United States, for...
My generation was born after 9/11. Twenty years after that day, the attacks resonate with us, but we need historical context to grasp why they occurred. People walk past yellow roses and flags placed on the names of 9/11 victims who were veterans, at the 9/11 Memorial...
The U.S. government owns the rights to any oil under our school. So, could frackers drill on campus? Turns out, the only certainty is the need to vote. Gymkhana Field at The Thacher School (Carin Yates/Thacher School) Since its founding in 1889, The Thacher School in...
Journalism is an adventure and publishing a process — lessons that Christina MacCorkle and Lucy Maitland-Lewis learned in spades in producing their article on a beloved field at their school in California. Gymkhana Field is where generations of Thacher School students have ridden horses, but it may also lie above valuable oil. Which is where the U.S. agency that manages federal lands enters the picture. Their story went through multiple drafts as they dug deeper and deeper into the web of issues. The bottom line is that the field’s future is uncertain — an ambiguous conclusion that could frustrate some writers. But the authors learned from the experience and their story educates us as well.
Exercise: Ask your students to research the history of their school grounds and to find out whether there is a chance that there could be changes to the school’s footprint, and if so, why.