Southern Illinois University Edwardsville alum Steve Matzker was among nearly two dozen students selected at the end of April to receive international reporting fellowships this year from the Pulitzer Center.
Matzker, a photographer who earned a degree in liberal studies from the SIUE College of Arts and Sciences in 2003, is the 2013 recipient of the John H. White “Keep in Flight Award” and was the Illinois Press Photographers Association’s 2013 runner-up Student Photographer of the Year. He earned a postgraduate degree from SIU Carbondale in December 2012.
Matzker will report from the banks of the Kosi River, between Nepal and the Indian border state of Bihar, during Kosi’s flooding season. Conflict over rights to the river’s water has dragged on for decades. As the world’s population continues to expand, water rights issues, hydropower in particular, come to the forefront.
The fellowship recipients will report on a range of global issues from around the world. The reporting fellowships are awarded to students who attend colleges and universities that are part of the Pulitzer Center’s Campus Consortium educational initiative.