Student Journalists Reflect on Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist’s Talk at Aronoff Center

Written by Clare McKinley, Jakob Staley, Oliva Patel, and Chloe Hall

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and bestselling author Nicholas Kristof spoke on Tuesday, Sept. 30 at the Aronoff Center for the Arts. 

The Library hosted four outstanding student journalists from regional universities, who were selected by their schools to attend and reflect on the lecture. Read their reflections below. 

The views and opinions expressed are solely those of the student journalists and do not represent those of the Library Foundation, the Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library, staff, and partner organizations.

Reflection by Clare McKinley

Clare McKinley is a senior at Xavier University studying English and advertising with a minor in political communications. She is the editor-in-chief of the Xavier Newswire. 

I learned an old Greek word a little while ago, parrhesia, which encompasses bold, courageous speech for the common good. It basically means speaking truth to power even at the risk of danger. When Nicholas Kristoff was retelling his experiences, I couldn’t get this word out of my mind.

This word perfectly describes the Kristoff’s work and the strength he’s encountered in people throughout his career, including the man who parked his school bus and chucked away the key so his oppressors could not drive through, and the woman who used the money she won in her court case for being raped to create schools to educate her community. The act of parrhesia cracks systems of oppression. Kristoff’s work is a reminder to not only look for the cracks made by others before me and follow their lead, but also to make my own.

That is the challenge Kristoff poses to you, me and my generation. Kristoff said, “side by side with the worst of humanity, you find the best.” I am inclined to believe him when he bears witness to this. He does this with an inspiring air of courage and humor. His persistence to have a bright outlook on life is something I hope to emulate. And, for me, it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of how. Thank you, Mr. Kristoff, for being an example of how my generation can speak truth to power and respond to the call with a resounding, hopeful “yes.”

Reflection by Jakob Staley

Jakob Staley is a senior at Northern Kentucky University, double majoring in journalism and electronic media and broadcasting. He is the sports editor at The Northerner. 

The real-life experiences Nicholas Kristof spoke on, such as the Yemeni Civil War, being in a plane crash, and dynamics in working-class America, struck me in a way that words can’t describe. 

One moment in the lecture that really hit me, was when Kristof was talking about a man who escaped prison. Kristof had a hard decision to make, whether to help the man get to refuge and break his journalism code or not help him and leave him in a highly dangerous area. Kristof picked the answer that I found to be right: to help the man. This real experience showed me that he is more than a journalist; he is a hero, and that is what I should strive for as an aspiring journalist.

The real-life experiences he mentioned throughout the Mary S. Stern lecture felt personal — maybe not the times he was in an active war or genocide— but, at their core, those stories can relate back to what’s going on in our backyard. As someone who wants to be a journalist, the issues he brought up in America are ones I want to keep an eye on. I can cover these topics and relate them back to my community, because they are issues all across America.

Meeting Mr. Kristof after the lecture was a surreal moment. Being able to shake his hand and tell him who I was, where I am from, and what I do, is a moment I’ll cherish forever. But what will stick with me forever out of the whole night was after I told him I was the sports editor at The Northerner. He told me that sports writers usually go into other avenues on top of sports because no one can write sports like they can, so “you can write about anything.”

The lottery of life: Reflection by Oliva Patel

Olivia Patel is a senior at Miami University, studying journalism and political science, with a minor in classical studies. She is the editor-in-chief of The Miami Student. 

“Nearly everyone in this theater has won the lottery of life – in one way or another. You have some responsibility to pay it forward.”

Nicholas Kristof, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and bestselling author, opened his lecture on Sept. 30 in the Aronoff Center for the Arts with this simple, yet powerful, message that was woven throughout the entirety of his lecture.

This message, as compelling as it is, was one I had heard before – from my mother.

Growing up, I slowly came to understand the truth in her and Kristof’s words, and I aspired to a career in journalism.

“There is some benefit to finding a cause that is bigger than yourself,” Kristof said.

He spent 45 minutes describing the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre in Beijing, China, the drug crisis in middle-class America, and even his plane crash in the Congolese jungle. But through all this hardship, he tied every story with his goal of seeking out humanity in the darkest corners of the world and learning every day how to pay his good fortune forward.

“While I hope you read [Chasing Hope], I more hope that, when you put the book down, you engage with these issues,” Kristof said at the close of his lecture.

And I haven’t put the book down since.

Individuals have power: Reflection by Chloe Hall

Chloe Hall is a third-year student at the University of Cincinnati majoring in Journalism. She works at The News Record. 

The dedication and care my professors put forth into nurturing my, and other students’ desire for knowledge, is what propelled me into journalism. Seeing slight similarities between my hometown and country and other less democratic nations made me want to know more.

Journalists like Nicholas Kristof have become beacons of hope, not only for those who want to pursue similar career paths, but for those who his reporting directly impacts. Kristof discussed his time abroad, where he reported on nations that many students in the United States do not truly begin to discuss until high school or college.

Even then, it can almost selectively be avoided. In other parts of the world, however, the threats of war and oppression become everyday struggles for everyone, including young people, leaving little time to think if they will make it to school.

If going to school has not already been prohibited. If the school has not already been destroyed.

Kristof and other correspondents who choose to report on such events are able to provide both a spotlight to issues and a glimmer of hope to those reading.

As journalists, we are faced with the reality that our work may not reach everyone. It may be denounced and defunded by some; Kristof reminded us that, as journalists and even as individuals, we have a duty to one another to not only call attention to the changes or atrocities in society and governments abroad, but also within our own.

The Mary S. Stern Lecture Series is possible through an endowment to The Library Foundation.