MARSEILLE -- Eleven University of Pennsylvania Master of Environmental Studies students are journalists at the 6th World Water Forum in this French city with the Oikos Student Reporter program this week.

Oikos is the international student organization for sustainable economics and management and a leading reference point for the promotion of sustainability change agents, and the World Water Forum is the largest global gathering of water professionals, government officials and other stakeholders. 

The Penn students are Aishwarya Nair, Arjun Bhargava, Martine Boswell, Marissa Rosen, Sharon Muli, Michael McCullough, Heidi Travis, Martha Powers, Maria-Tzina Leria, Iliana Sepulveda and Lindsay Shafer: their bios can be found here.

The project is led by Caroline D’Angelo, also a Master of Environmental Studies student and reporter-in-residence with the Oikos Student Reporter program.  The project was made possible through support from Oikos International and the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and the College of Liberal and Professional Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.

“The Oikos Student Reporter program is an important educational tool for students, allowing them to critically engage and interview high-level professionals through online journalism," D’Angelo said. “ It is more crucial than ever to equip students with writing, networking and social media tools to help bridge the communications gap between science, economics and policy."

The program also creates youth participation in leading global conferences and connects current and pressing issues with tomorrow’s leaders. The Penn students have interviewed and interacted with some of the top global leaders in water and are using their background knowledge to debate and examine the complex topics presented at the Forum.

To read their blogs, listen to their interviews and comment and contribute, visit www.studentreporter.org.