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How to Build a Perfect Refugee camp

Mac McClelland

February 13, 2014 |

The New York Times |

Text |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: Turkey, Kilis Merkez, Kilis

Refugee camps typically look like a prison with squalid conditions and barbed wire tops. By contrast, the Kilis refugee camp in Turkey is orderly, secure, and clean; has schools for children; has grocery stores, and is powered with electricity. The camp is not run by the United Nations, but rather it is Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency that oversees every detail and pours billions of dollars into maintaining it every year.

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Preparing for Disaster by Betting Against It

Georgia Levenson Keohane

February 12, 2014 |

The New York Times |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, necessity has bred an interesting kind of financial invention for the New York MTA: the world’s first “catastrophe” bond - a reinsurance for the insurer - designed to protect public transportation infrastructure, specifically against storm surge. These bonds privatize risk for public gain, creating a kind of tool that may protect economic development against all kinds of natural and man-made disasters around the world.

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Creativity Becomes an Academic Discipline

Laura Pappano

February 05, 2014 |

The New York Times |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States

As creativity has increasingly become a marketable skill (in 2011 and 2012 "creative" was the most common word found on LinkedIn profiles), colleges are starting to formally build it into the curriculum with undergraduate majors and courses such as "Introduction to Creativity Studies." Long thought of as "the product of genius or divine intervention," these courses reframe creativity as a skill that can be taught to those students willing to learn.

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Improving Economic Diversity at the Better Colleges

Peg Tyre

February 05, 2014 |

The New York Times |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Lancaster, Pennsylvania

Students with low-income that attend public schools can find themselves locked in a system that prevents them from getting into the best colleges, from being unable to afford tuition, to not having the ambition, to not knowing a school that would welcome them. Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, PA targets high-performing low-income students. The college provides outreach to high school students in poor communities, financial aid to low-income families, summer workshops, and on-site advising and academic support.

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Playing With Toys and Saving Lives

Tina Rosenberg

January 29, 2014 |

The New York Times |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Nicaragua, Jinotepe, Carazo

Many different people are inventing health devices for resource-poor settings, but some organizations - like M.I.T.’s Little Devices group - are empowering developing communities and increasing access to healthcare by building medical devices that nurses and doctors in very poor settings can adapt themselves — or kits for making their own, often harvesting parts from toys to cleverly rig up medical equipment. It’s part of a major idea shift, one that’s transforming the design of foreign aid.

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A Court's All-Hands Approach Aids Girls Most at Risk

Patricia Leigh Brown

January 28, 2014 |

The New York Times |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Oakland, California

Girls Court brings an all-hands-on-deck approach to the lives of vulnerable girls, linking them to social service agencies, providing informal Saturday sessions on everything from body image to legal jargon, and offering a team of adults in whom they can develop trust.

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Helping Poor Defendants Post Bail in Backlogged Bronx

Julie Turkewitz

January 22, 2014 |

The New York Times |

Multi-Media |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

What happens when people can’t afford to pay bail? They plead guilty. That’s what happened in the Bronx Court System, which has “one of the most backlogged big-city courts in the nation.” One nonprofit, Bronx Defenders, wants to help, by paying their bail.

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Playing the Odds on Saving

Tina Rosenberg

January 15, 2014 |

The New York Times |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Michigan

Lotteries aren’t usually considered part of the solution to a savings crisis experienced across America, particularly by the nation's poor, but with more hopefuls purchasing lottery tickets than setting aside rainy day funds, one organization, Doorways to Dreams, is working to change federal and state laws to allow banks to offer prize-linked savings. In Michigan, the programs have seen some success.

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How to Help College Students Graduate

David L. Kirp

January 08, 2014 |

The New York Times |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

Better support systems in colleges, such as CUNY's Accelerated Study in Associate Programs, have led to lower dropout rates and higher student retention.

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In the Long War on Poverty, Small Victories That Matter

David Bornstein

January 08, 2014 |

The New York Times |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

A panoply of responses to poverty has emerged to address poverty in the United States and abroad. The responses share in three key tactics: Measuring impact, paying for success, and collaboration.

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