51社区

Some 38,000 Somalis fleeing unrest in their nation have found a new home in Columbus, Ohio, making it the second-largest such community in the United States. But amid the lawns and trees of the Midwest, they鈥檝e found a different kind of desert than the literal one that also decimates their country: a media desert lacking a source of community news and information.

Four 51社区 students鈥攁ll from outside the U.S.鈥� won the University鈥檚 internal Scripps Innovation Challenge Pitch Day in March and then the broader Scripps International Innovators Cup in April for their solution to the problem.

Team Ubuntu (ubuntu means 鈥渉uman kindness鈥� in Nguni Bantu, a language spoken in Southern Africa) came up with NewsRain, a website and mobile app that empower Columbus鈥檚 Somali refugees to report their own stories.

鈥淲e wanted to create a venture whose value went beyond its innovative edge, and this challenge gave us the necessary platform to imbue our idea with social and cultural sensitivity,鈥� said team captain Ayleen Cabas Mijares, a Venezuelan student who received her master鈥檚 degree in journalism in June.

She and co-captain Kingsley Antwi-Boasiako, a journalism graduate student from Ghana, researched media deserts and the best approaches to serve the community. Goitom Negash, an African studies graduate student from Ethiopia, contacted Somali leaders in Columbus to coordinate recruitment of volunteer journalists. Ghanian Samuel Antwi, a doctoral student in instructional technology, along with Daniel Osei, MITS 鈥�16, created the website and are developing a mobile app.

Team Ubuntu topped six other competitors at the fourth annual Pitch Day, winning $10,000 and the right to compete in the second annual Scripps International Cup, also sponsored by OHIO. There, they bested six university teams from across the U.S. before a panel of judges from the high-tech and digital media industries, earning an additional $5,000.

鈥淥ur goal is to elevate the work of student-innovators to the level of our student-athletes,鈥� said Michelle Ferrier, associate dean for innovation, research/creative activity and graduate studies at OHIO鈥檚 Scripps College of Communication. 鈥淭his international showcase brings that much-needed visibility to student innovation.鈥�

At Pitch Day, second place of $5,000 and the People鈥檚 Choice Award went to the Honey Badgers, who combined investigative journalism with big data in a website called ConnectWatch, which would allow reporters to dig into three databases鈥攑ublic expenditures, business registrations and leadership, and state campaign contributions鈥攖o connect the dots between campaign contributions and public spending.

Team captain Will Drabold and teammates Sam Howard and Danielle Keeton-Olsen鈥攚ho each earned journalism degrees through the Honors Tutorial College in the spring鈥攕hare an interest in political reporting. Keeton-Olsen brought in Abdalah El-Barrad, a junior math and economics major, who invited his friend Logan Leland, a junior majoring in computer science.

鈥淎bdalah and Logan could actually do a prototype,鈥� Drabold said. 鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 just three journalism students going, 鈥榃ell, we could link that and that and that.鈥欌€�

In fact, with the journalism students out in the real world, El-Barrad and Leland remain at work on the project.

鈥淚鈥檝e started collecting data from other states,鈥� Leland said, 鈥渁nd my computer science advisor wants to work with me on making it better.鈥�

Politics also was behind the winner of the $5,000 Diversity Prize, awarded for strategies that reach out to underserved or underrepresented audiences. In the Innovation Challenge, captain Miguel Gomez and teammates Tanvir Iqbal and McKenzie Powell, all three spring graduates, and junior business major Alex Stewart pitched Minerva, a free web and mobile app that offers market-based rewards for political engagement. (The app is named for the Roman goddess of wisdom, Iqbal said; he got the idea for the name after seeing a mosaic of the goddess at the Library of Congress.)

In Minerva鈥檚 central feature, 鈥淰olunteer,鈥� users log political engagement activities鈥攖ranslating at voting places, helping people register to vote, educating new citizens about voting鈥攖o earn a reward from a business sponsor: a free latte at Starbucks or a discount at Dick鈥檚 Sporting Goods. In the 鈥淐ommunity鈥� section, users look up activities by culture (say, Latino or Muslim) to see how key issues are handled in different areas of the country. The 鈥淯nited Game鈥� prepares users for the U.S. citizenship test.

Gomez, son of a naturalized American citizen, was inspired by his mother鈥檚 first trip to the voting polls.

鈥淪he was really excited because she finally got to vote,鈥� said Gomez. 鈥淏ut she wasn鈥檛 really fluent in English and she had trouble getting in touch with organizations to help her to vote. I could see that the only way she got to vote was because she had help, and that was a problem, and realized that there was a solution.鈥�

Gomez earned a bachelor鈥檚 degree in physics. Powell received bachelor鈥檚 degrees in journalism and global studies. Iqbal earned a master鈥檚 degree in civil engineering. They hope to reconvene to take Minerva from pitch to reality.

鈥淚鈥檓 pretty sure we鈥檙e going to be talking about this again,鈥� Iqbal said. 鈥淲e put a lot into this, not only for winning the competition.鈥�

鈥�Corinne Colbert, BSJ 鈥�87, MA 鈥�93, is a freelance writer based in Athens.

Feature photo: (left to right) Scripps Innovation Challenge judges Battino L. Batts Jr., director of the Journalism Fund for the Scripps Howard Foundation at E.W. Scripps Company; MJ Franklin, social producer at Mashable; Leah Petrovich, BSJ 鈥�13, project manager at Branding Brand; and Mizell Stewart III, news executive for Gannett鈥檚 USA TODAY Network, review notes before deciding the winner on March 14. Photo by Margaret Sabec, MA 鈥�17