This Is The Thing About the NYTimes

I'm about to blog for the first time about myself...

So I've only told a couple of my close friends this, but last week I entered a contest put on by the New York Times to win a journalism trip to Africa. A couple of years ago a journalist by the name of Nicholas Kristof returned to New York after reporting about the atrocities he had seen in Darfur. Upon returning he experienced thousand of New York citizens in an uproar due to a company displacing a bird's nest.

"The spark wasn’t genocide, war or poverty, but rather homelessness — of a red-tailed hawk nicknamed Pale Male. Managers of a Fifth Avenue apartment building had dismantled his nest.Fury! Television cameras! And public pressure that led to a solution for rebuilding the nest."

Nicholas Kristof wondered how people could care more about birds than dying children in the Sudan, he figured maybe it was because people had never seen human suffering face to face. Therefore he starting this competition where he would choose one college student and take them on a trip to the most poverty stricken areas of Africa.

To enter people have to submit a video describing why Nick should pick them. Below is my video. I really hope I win. This will be my first experience outside the country with a non-Christian organization. I'll also get to blog for the New York Times. Talk about being an influence on secular society, and bridging the gap between the sacred and the secular. Check out my response video...