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.
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The FDA's decision to fully approve Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine has opened the door for a growing number of colleges and universities to mandate the vaccine for their communities this academic year.
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Students across the country are headed back to campus for fall classes. With the delta variant raging, there are questions around how colleges can pull this semester off.
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U.S. colleges are counting on high COVID-19 vaccination rates to keep their campuses safe this fall. Many are pulling out flashy rewards to encourage students and faculty to get their shots.
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Indiana University is among the more that 500 colleges in the U.S. requiring that students receive the COVID-19 vaccine for fall semester. But a new lawsuit is challenging the university's mandate.
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Most of the class of 2020 experienced canceled or online-only graduation ceremonies, but this year many colleges are finding creative ways to celebrate their graduates in person. -
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.
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In the dorms at University of Florida, the facility who keep the dorms clean has had to remind college leadership that during the pandemic they aren't just essential — but frontline workers.
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After delaying the start of an in-person semester, many colleges are now seeing spikes of COVID-19 rates as students return to campus for the spring semester.
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Many colleges are starting their spring semester this week, and new data show that schools are bringing students back to campus, with more in-person classes.
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As coronavirus cases surge across the U.S., college students are nearing Thanksgiving break. But going home is complicated this year. We discuss how colleges ensure students' safe travel.
