Category Archives: Awards

      
 
 
 
 

Echo writers win accolades

Two Great Lakes Echo writers have won awards in the latest Michigan Press Association College Better Newspaper Contest.

Master’s student Anna Barnes snared 1st place in the Column, Review or Blog category for “Book gathers historic accounts of Michigan cougar encounters” and undergrad Isabella Figueroa Nogueira won honorable mention in the same category for “Picnics and Porcupines: Book explores history of eating outside in the U.P.”

picture Isabella Nogueira

Isabella Figueroa Nogueira

Anna Barnes

High schools receive environmental journalism grants

By Isabella Figueroa Nogueira

The Knight Center has awarded grants to four Michigan high schools to support collaboration between their journalism and environmental science classes. Their projects bring together scientific research and student storytelling while also connecting schools with professional mentors who guide the work.

The grants go to:

  • Manchester Junior/Senior High School in Manchester for a project centered on its long- running greenhouse program. Environmental science students grow and care for plants while learning sustainable practices, and journalism students document the process through stories, photo essays and video reports. The content will be shared through school publications, social media and local outlets, providing information to the community about sustainable agriculture and student work.

The teachers are Randy Smith and Carla Zygner.

  • The School at Marygrove in Detroit for a project focused on studying a natural area known as The Grove. Environmental science students research the health of the ecosystem and track environmental changes over time, while journalism students create multimedia stories to make those findings accessible to a broader audience. The project aims to raise awareness and encourage better environmental decision-making in the community

The teachers are Kerry Williams and Alistair Bomphray. Continue reading →

Open call for 2026 proposals for high school journalism and environmental science collaborations

To encourage collaboration between high school journalism and environmental science classes, we invite teachers to submit proposals for innovative class projects in which journalism students will report about field research by environmental science students. Our principal goals are:

  • to help young prospective journalists better understand and explain to the public how science is done
  • to help environmental science students learn to use the media to explain their work to the public.
  • to promote environmental and science journalism.

The Knight Center intends to award 1-year grants of $2,000 to up to 2 high schools: $1,000 to the journalism program and $1,000 to the environmental science program for equipment, software or scholarships. In addition, the Knight Center will pair each school with a professional journalist to serve as a mentor to participating students and teachers. Continue reading →

Sierra Club cites Knight Center for environmental coverage

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The Knight Center’s regional environmental news service, Great Lakes Echo, has received a 2025 Print Environmental Journalism Award from the Sierra Club’s Michigan chapter.

Also winning an award was Planet Detroit, an online nonprofit news service that partners with the Knight Center and GLISA to provide a paid summer environmental reporting internship to a Michigan State University student.

Knight Center director Eric Freedman and retired senior associate director Dave Poulson accepted the award at a Sept. 20 ceremony at Kemeny Recreation Center in Detroit. Poulson is the founder and former editor of Great Lakes Echo.