The graduate students selected to receive the McCormick scholarships are Cat Boardman, Alexandra Hines, Michelle Kim, Eliza Larson, Rachel Menitoff, Melanie Saltzman, Matthew Schehl, Tammy Thueringer, Chris Walljasper and Kjerstin Wood. Two students have been designated as alternates: Carolyn Freundlich and Matthew McKinney.

The winners of these $7,500 graduate student scholarships will work under the supervision of Josh Meyer, director of education and outreach of the Medill National Security Journalism Initiative, to report on the national security implications of landmines and other “explosive remnants of war.”

“I’m very excited to have the opportunity to work with such a talented and enthusiastic group of student reporters in tackling an issue of such huge national – and international – importance,” said Meyer, a 20-year veteran of the Los Angeles Times who joined Medill in 2010 and who is also the McCormick Lecturer in National Security Studies.

“As armed conflicts rage across the globe and the wars wind down in Afghanistan and Iraq, this topic couldn’t be more timely. We expect to deliver a series of innovative stories of real importance to the American public.”

Ellen Shearer, William F. Thomas Professor of Journalism and co-director of the Medill National Security Journalism Initiative, said she is “thrilled by the possibilities for great reporting and storytelling that this terrific group of students affords us.”

This year’s effort will be the fifth in which Medill collaborates with national media partners to publish a project across all media platforms while emphasizing the use of innovative multimedia and interactive journalistic techniques.

The project, formally known as the National Security Reporting Project, will focus on the deadly legacy of landmines, cluster munitions and other military materiel that have been deployed – and are still being deployed – in more than 65 countries, killing and maiming untold thousands of innocent men, women and children. It will also focus on why the U.S. government has refused to sign landmark treaties governing the use and cleanup of these weapons.

The fifth quarter specialization program in national security reporting is part of Medill’s larger National Security Journalism Initiative, which is funded by the Robert R. McCormick Foundation. The National Security Reporting Project launched in 2010 and its first effort, Global Warning, on the national security implications of climate change, won a prestigious national award from the Online News Association.

The 2011 project on the challenges facing the military reserves, including the National Guard — Hidden Surge — also garnered national attention. Both were published by The Washington Post; the 2010 project also was distributed by McClatchy News Service. The 2012 project on energy security, Oil Change, was published by GlobalPost and featured on The Post’s website, and the 2013 project on global food security was done in conjunction with USA Today.

The winners of these $7,500 graduate student scholarships are working under  Josh Meyer, a 20-year veteran of the Los Angeles Times who joined the Medill faculty in 2010 to help establish the school’s National Security Journalism Initiative (NSJI).  “We’re planning to think big with our project and deliver a series of stories of real importance to the American public,” said Meyer.

The project, formally known as the National Security Reporting Project, is focusing on the national security implications of energy. Top U.S. military and intelligence officials now say they consider the United States’ voracious need for a continuing supply of oil to be one of their top national security concerns, as well as one of the government’s biggest expenses.

The project is focusing on how much money the U.S. is spending to find, develop, protect, transport and preserve its stores of energy, particularly oil, and whether it is preparing for the huge problems that are looming on the horizon with regard to energy shortages and overall issues of security. According to experts, U.S. dependence on foreign sources of energy constitutes a serious and growing threat—militarily, socially and economically.

The graduate student recipients of the McCormick scholarships are Dana Ballout, Elizabeth Bunn, Ali Durkin, Carly Rachael Helfand, David Kashi, Ben Kesling, Rosa Lin, Gloria JuYoung Oh, Qixin (Kevin) Wang and Yue Wang.  

Meyer and Ellen Shearer, who joins Meyer in teaching the reporting project and is Medill’s William F. Thomas Professor of Journalism as well as director of the Washington Program, selected the McCormick scholarship winners.

Shearer said she is “thrilled by the possibilities for great reporting and storytelling that this terrific group of students affords us.” This year’s project will collaborate with national media partners to publish across all media platforms while emphasizing the use of innovative multimedia and interactive journalistic techniques.

The fifth quarter specialization program in national security reporting is part of Medill’s larger National Security Journalism Initiative, which is funded by the McCormick Foundation. The National Security Reporting Project launched in 2010, and its first effort, on the national security implications of climate change (http://global-warning.org) won a prestigious national award from the Online News Association. Last year’s project on the challenges facing the military reserves, including the National Guard, (http://hiddensurge.org) also garnered national attention. Both were done in collaboration with The Washington Post, which published the findings both in print and online. The 2010 project was also widely circulated by the McClatchy News Service.

The project, called Hidden Surge, found that many have been hastily channeled through a post-deployment process that has been plagued with difficulties, including reliance on self-reporting to identify health problems. These service members face unique challenges and report higher rates of some mental health problems and related ills than active-duty troops.

Work by a team of 10 students in Medill’s graduate journalism program was published Feb. 15 in The Washington Post and is available on the Medill’s Hidden Surge site.  Students interviewed more than 80 current and former military and health officials and experts, and National Guard and Reserve troops and their families, and reviewed scores of official documents and reports. They traveled to military bases, National Guard installations and medical centers in nine states to do on-the-ground reporting.

“Reporting from military bases and other locations from Montana to Missouri and from New Mexico to North Carolina, the Medill students have done a real public service,  delivering a well-reported and well-told examination of an issue that is only now being fully acknowledged by the military,’’  said Medill faculty member Josh Meyer, who directed the project and reported on national security for the Los Angeles Times for 20 years.

The students’ research and interviews with current and former officials suggest that attempts by Congress, the military and private contractors to address the problems have been uncoordinated and often ineffective. That includes efforts to provide the kind of comprehensive medical care and support networks that help diagnose what military leaders call the signature wounds of the post-9/11 conflicts — post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury.

Reservists lack access to the system or networks that experts say are needed to assess and treat their injuries. After brief demobilization assessments, reserve troops return home and must navigate disparate health-care and support providers, often without the psychological safety net that comes from living near members of their unit.

“The National Guard faces unique challenges compared to our active-duty counterparts,” acknowledged Gen. Craig McKinley, chief of the National Guard Bureau, which is responsible for administering the guard’s 54 state and territorial units. He said the Obama administration is redoubling efforts to address resulting problems, including substance abuse, depression, PTSD and suicide.

The Findings

• The guard and reserve have been hit particularly hard by mental health issues. From September 2010 to August 2011, post-deployment health reassessment screenings found nearly 17 out of every 100 returning reservists had mental health problems serious enough for follow up. They are 55 percent more likely than active-component service members to have such problems.
• Because of screening lapses, reserve soldiers were sent overseas who should not have been, including some with behavioral problems that could become aggravated by the stress of combat and lead to depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and even suicide.
• Private contractors are responsible for much of the pre- and post-deployment screening; the latest multi-year “readiness’’ contract proposal is estimated to be worth about $1 billion. Despite the public funding, they are not required to provide any kind of comprehensive public reporting on their efforts and whether they are successful.
• Congress has not been aggressive in addressing the reserve health issues. In December, Sen.  Ron Wyden, D-Ore., couldn’t get enough support to even require the Pentagon to study his proposal to ease the transition of reserve troops by giving them more time and resources on their way home.

“The students’ imaginative use of video storytelling and interactive graphics, as well as traditional narrative,  to present their work showcases their understanding of the need to find new ways to engage people and keep them informed on important issues like national security,” said faculty member Ellen Shearer, co-director of the Medill National Security Journalism Initiative and director of the Medill Washington Program.

The students learned sophisticated interactive storytelling approaches with the help of Kat Downs, interactive projects editor at The Washington Post and Greg Linch, the Post’s world and national security producer.

An annual initiative

The Hidden Surge project is the second in a series of annual investigations that are part of Medill’s broader National Security Journalism Initiative which is funded by the McCormick Foundation. The first project, Global Warning,  examined the threat posed to national security by climate change. It garnered international attention and won a national award from the Online News Association.

The National Security Journalism Initiative is unique in journalism education. It comprises undergraduate and graduate classes at Medill in Chicago and Washington; research and reporting projects; and resources and training that provide students and working journalists with the knowledge and skills necessary to report accurately and with context on issues related to defense, security and civil liberties.

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