Great Lakes Echo writer Jack Armstrong is the winner of the 2023 Michigan Outdoor Writers Association/Toyota “Let’s Go Places” competition.

It is the first time the annual award has been based on photography.

Bob Vogel, the president of the Michigan Outdoor Writers Association, presents Jack Armstrong, with the association’s 2023 “Let’s Go Places” Award underwritten by Toyota Motors North America.

Armstrong is using the $2,500 award to upgrade his photography gear as he pursues a career in communicating the outdoors experience. The money “will further my environmental photography projects, both professional and personal.”

Earlier this summer, Armstrong participated in the School of Journalism’s Education Abroad photojournalism program in Kenya where he photographed wildlife. MSU journalism professor Judy Walgren led the program.

“I’m majoring in journalism and environment, science and health reporting and minoring in media photography and environmental science,” Armstrong said. “I cover solutions to tricky environmental problems, like tech that could one day make fuel from carbon exhaust.” Continue reading →

The MSU J-School has launched an initiative to diversify journalists who report on the environment.

It offers significant scholarships, training and internships that benefit emerging and diverse student journalists in any field. Continue reading →

MSU’s Knight Center for Environmental Journalism ran a science communication class during fall 2022 for 17 students from diverse science and communication fields.

 The class produced compelling stories from dry studies, created narratives to accompany animated datasets, produced a shadow puppet show about invasive species, planned a museum exhibit of the future, created science TikToks and used humor to explain science.

One produced and performed a song with the rest of the class backing him. Another produced this video of what the rest of the class did.