Former Florida Student News Watch students receive reporting fellowship on food insecurity
Managing Editor Casey Chapter and former News Watch student Ariyon Dailey have paired up to look into food access and insecurity on Tallahassee college campuses for WFSU Public Media.
Florida Student News Watch administration is thrilled to announce that Managing Editor Casey Chapter and former student journalist Ariyon Dailey – now an independent journalist in Texas – are Fellows with the Education Writers Association.
Chapter and Dailey will embark on an ambitious project to document food security, access and quality for college students at Florida State University and Florida A&M University for WFSU News radio station.
EWA is a nonprofit that works to support journalists who write about education. Chapter will temporarily step out of her role as managing editor to pursue the fellowship.
“The thing I’m looking forward to is being able to gather some really great data to support and uplift our story,” Dailey said. “Gaining the resources to showcase that is a dream come true.”
She added that the research gathered during the reporting of the project could help shed light on the diversity of food access for college students throughout Tallahassee.
EWA awarded nine fellowships this round and Dailey and Chapter’s project received $5,000 to support their reporting. The pair will work with Lynn Hatter of WFSU radio station to bring the project to the airwaves in Tallahassee and throughout the Florida public radio network.
“Having financial support makes this project a lot more feasible,” Chapter said. “Our ideas and our goals are very ambitious. But having funding to back this project…makes aspects a lot more doable.”
Chapter said the duo plan to incorporate various multimedia forms of reporting into their story, including data visualization mapping, input from surveys sent to students, and video and audio components.
“We really haven’t seen (college food access) discussed too much and we hope (our work) can enlighten local officials, policymakers and local public officials to the issues students face with food access,” she said.
Both Dailey and Chapter have published previously as students via the Florida Student News Watch, where Chapter serves as the Managing Editor.
Dailey is a Florida A&M University graduate and multimedia journalist, and Chapter is a Florida State University graduate. Dailey wrote a story previously on the enduring legacy of soul food for the Tallahassee Democrat via the News Watch. Chapter wrote for the Tallahassee Democrat during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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