Free Student Travel Writing Trip - NY Times

Sunday March 26, 2006

"I'm looking for a masochist. If your dream trip doesn't involve a five-star hotel in Rome or Bora-Bora, but a bedbug-infested mattress in a malarial jungle as hungry jackals yelp outside - then read on."

Kinda catchy, huh? That's from a letter announcing that New York Times Op-Ed and TimesSelect columnist Nick Kristof is giving some free travel to a student writer submitting the best 700 word essay in a contest happening now. You must be over 18, enrolled in an American college and not adverse to dealing with blowing sand and blisters. And want to travel a developing country for free while learning from a Pulitzer prize winning journalist.

What the best contestant, who should already have some writing, blogging or student journalism experience, will get (taken from the New York Times):

The winner will have an opportunity to submit for possible publication a regular report in the TimesSelect section of NYTimes.com and in The New York Times newspaper.
$1,000 stipend
Round-trip airplane ticket
All trip-related meals
Lodging and transportation

According to the website, your essay on why you're the perfect traveling companion for Nick Kristof, along with two references, one from a faculty member, is due by April 20. The trip will last about 10 days; notification will happen by June 1. Destination unknown, though Cameroon and Burundi are mentioned and third world travel is a given.

In the interest of full disclosure, I guess I should note that About.com is a New York Times company, but my only motivation here is to help ensure that you get to experience the trots, leeches and ticks that tend to come with certain kinds of travel writing, the stripes of which are usually colored in sunburn. And because you should have an experience that will absolutely alter you for the rest of your life.

Kristof writes, "Frankly, I’m hoping that you’ll be changed when you see a boy dying of malaria because his parents couldn’t afford a $5 mosquito net... I began backpacking through Africa and Asia when I was in university, and the experiences changed me as I hope this trip will change you."

Things like this just don't come around every day; sieze it if you can.