Elissa Nadworny
Elissa Nadworny reports on all things college for NPR, following big stories like unprecedented enrollment declines, college affordability, the student debt crisis and workforce training. During the 2020-2021 academic year, she traveled to dozens of campuses to document what it was like to reopen during the coronavirus pandemic. Her work has won several awards including a 2020 Gracie Award for a story about student parents in college, a 2018 James Beard Award for a story about the Chinese-American population in the Mississippi Delta and a 2017 Edward R. Murrow Award for excellence in innovation.
Nadworny uses multiplatform storytelling – incorporating radio, print, comics, photojournalism, and video — to put students at the center of her coverage. Some favorite story adventures include crawling in the sewers below campus to test wastewater for the coronavirus, yearly deep-dives into the most popular high school plays and musicals and an epic search for the history behind her classroom skeleton.
Before joining NPR in 2014, Nadworny worked at Bloomberg News, reporting from the White House. A recipient of the McCormick National Security Journalism Scholarship, she spent four months reporting on U.S. international food aid for USA Today, traveling to Jordan to talk with Syrian refugees about food programs there.
Originally from Erie, Pa., Nadworny has a bachelor's degree in documentary film from Skidmore College and a master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.
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Columbia University officials answered lawmaker questions about antisemitism on campus. But Wednesday's hearing played out very differently from the 2023 hearing that grabbed so many headlines.
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FAFSA delays and missteps have meant far fewer students have filled out the crucial aid form. Experts worry this will lead to fewer students going to college.
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Women who are pregnant or who have recently given birth in Gaza face serious challenges amid daily airstrikes, continued ground fighting, high rates of disease and a growing lack of food and water. -
A visit to one of Israel's hardest-hit areas in the north: Matula, Israel's most northern town, surrounded on three sides by Lebanon.
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And not just toddlers — infants and preschoolers too. A new effort aims to help the 4 million college students raising kids by putting Head Start programs on community college campuses. -
The university agreed to the fine as part of a settlement agreement with the U.S. Education Department, which found numerous violations of the Clery Act, a campus safety law. -
Students taking the exam use their own devices, or school devices – they no longer need a paper and pencil. More than a million students are expected to take the test. -
Dartmouth College is going back to requiring the SAT after it found students from less advantaged backgrounds were not submitting test scores that were high enough to help them get in.
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A new study conducted by Dartmouth College found test scores could have helped less advantaged students gain access to the school. -
NPR's Elissa Nadworny talks with GennaRose Nethercott about the power of folklore and her collection of strange and fantastic short stories, "Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart."
