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.
-
Noah Kahan went from writing a pandemic album on his parents' farm in rural Vermont to selling out an arena tour and being nominated for best new artist at the Grammys. -
Wesleyan University is among a small group of colleges requiring COVID-19 boosters for spring semester. Will other institutions follow? -
More campuses are expected to add the requirement, with potential legal challenges ahead. One key point: Requiring vaccines for infectious diseases is nothing new for many residential colleges. -
Colleges are leaning heavily on campus custodians. "You may not have seen us before the pandemic, but I guarantee you'll see us now," says Tanya Hughes, a campus building services head in Florida. -
A majority of U.S. colleges have canceled spring break, in an attempt to curb student travel. But the rise of online classes means students can now attend college from anywhere, including beachside. -
We've talked with hundreds of people since the pandemic shut down schools and colleges a year ago. We checked back back in with three of them about how their lives have changed. -
The FAFSA uses tax data from two years ago to determine a student's eligibility for financial aid for college. But if your financial situation has changed since then, there are ways to get more money. -
The lifelong educator is the third Latino candidate Biden's put forward for a Cabinet post. On Wednesday, Cardona spoke of the challenges schools have faced this year: "I've lived those challenges." -
Cardona is a former teacher and has spent much of the pandemic pushing to reopen schools. President-elect Joe Biden announced his intention to nominate him on Tuesday evening. -
In a bipartisan effort, Congress is close to a deal to simplify the federal financial aid form, or FAFSA, a major policy goal of retiring Republican senator Lamar Alexander.
