NLP students shine at Pulitzer Prize announcement event

NLP’s partnership with the Pulitzer Prizes continued to grow in impressive fashion yesterday as NLP students asked most of the questions at a news conference that followed the announcement of this year's Pulitzer Prize winners.

Students at The Young Women’s Leadership School of Astoria — all of whom have used NLP’s Checkology virtual classroom — attended the announcement of the Pulitzer Prizes at Columbia University on April 16. Afterward, they met with Dana Canedy (back row, in red), the Pulitzer Prizes’ administrator.

More than a dozen NLP students from several New York City public schools attended the event at Columbia University. Four students who have completed lessons in NLP’s Checkology® virtual classroom were among those who asked questions of Pulitzer Prize Administrator Dana Canedy.

Tenzin Choezin, a ninth-grader at The Young Women’s Leadership School of Astoria, was the first questioner: “What advice do you have for aspiring female journalists?”

“I hope you are an aspiring young journalist, because that was a great question and we can use people like you,” said Canedy, who spent more than two decades as a reporter and editor at The New York Times and was the lead journalist for a Times series that won the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 2001. “Whether it’s journalism or any other profession, find something that you’re impassioned about and stick to it. Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you can’t do it.”

The students’ invitation to attend the Pulitzer Prizes announcement was part of a deepening partnership that began last week when Canedy participated in a Virtual Visit with Premium subscribers to NLP’s Checkology virtual classroom. Eugene Robinson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist at The Washington Post and the chair of the Pulitzer board, and Alan C. Miller, the founder and CEO of NLP and a Pulitzer winner with the Los Angeles Times, held a second Virtual Visit yesterday before this year’s winners were announced.

A third Virtual Visit is planned for May 30, when the prizes will be awarded during a luncheon at Columbia’s Low Library. As part of the partnership, NLP will also receive access to the Pulitzer Prizes’ digital archive when it is complete and plans to use it to supplement lessons in the virtual classroom.

Sonam Lhamo, another ninth-grader at The Young Women’s Leadership School, asked the final question yesterday: “How does it feel to be the first woman and person of color to serve as the administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes?”

“I am so humbled and blessed and honored,” Canedy responded, adding: “Seeing you young ladies and some of the students here — if in years ahead you guys think, ‘You know what? I can do that too,’ then I’m proud of being a part of having you here today.”