PRC May 12-18, 2002
Hilton Washington and Towers, Washington DC

Participants

Malaika Gordon
Graduate of U-C Berkeley, living in Washington, DC
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Throughout the Latin-American community, Spanglish (a mixture of Spanish and English) has become a common way for young people to communicate. Malaika Gordon looks at the phenomena. In Washington, DC, she visits a youth center and a Spanish language radio station to find out why some teens use Spanglish.

Keith Marshall
Senior, Georgetown University, Washington, DC
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Keith's essay is about life as a college athlete, looking at his four years at Georgetown University, and putting his experience as a football player into context with other aspects of being a college student. Keith's piece will also look at people's perceptions about what it means to be a student athlete at a big-name school.

Margie Montes
Senior, University of Texas-El Paso
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Chicano Poet Benjamin Alire Saenz' poems speak about political and literary heroes and everyday people. Sáenz grew up Chicano in the world of the U.S./Mexico Border in a traditional Mexican-American Catholic family. Margie Montes has this profile of the man who says poetry should be part of the public discourse and not pushed to a lesser level of importance.

Brian Montopoli
Graduate of Georgetown University, Washington, DC
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The September 11 terrorist attacks have had a significant effect on hate groups in the United States. The groups have seen an opportunity to ratchet up their rhetoric and capitalize on the nationalistic sentiment that has swept the country since the attacks. Traditional recruits - impressionable, disenfranchised young people, are now even more susceptible to the white power message.

Scott Rodbro
Graduate of the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies in Portland, Maine, now living in Elmhurst, Illinois
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Rear Admiral Ann Rondeau is in charge of the only Navy boot camp in the country, at Great Lakes Training Center. Many of the recruits will leave Great Lakes and go directly to the Middle East. What training methods has the Navy employed to prepare these young boys for this? How has the Navy changed or evolved to address the war in Afghanistan and quite possibly Iraq?

Nadia Sarkis
Law student, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL
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Nadia Sarkis is investigating what happens to foster children once they turn 18. When they become legal adults, the state takes no further responsibility for them. Foster parents don't have to, either. Out on their own with few transitional support services, some end up homeless or in jail.

Robin Shannon
Graduate Student, Monmouth Univ, West Long Branch, NJ
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Overweight women spend millions of dollars trying to be thin. Researchers say women they're trying to reach some ideal form of attractiveness, ingrained in them from popular movies and television. Other scholars believe this is a waste of time.

Kate Sweeney
Graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill
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Old Fourth Ward was Atlanta's African-American cultural hub for much of the 20th century; the neighborhood where Martin Luther King, Jr. was born and preached and the site of the thriving "Sweet" Auburn business district. But like black neighborhoods across the country, Atlanta's Old Fourth Ward experienced a dramatic decline in the last few decades. One community organization is working to revitalize the neighborhood that King called home.