Creation of New International Award
Water-borne diseases resulting from a lack of clean drinking water and poor sanitation kill more children each year than any other illness in the world. By 2030, when today's 10-year-olds will be working and raising a family, experts estimate that three billion people will live in areas of severe water shortage.
In an effort to raise awareness of these issues and others related to water, and to encourage further exploration of solutions to these problems, ITT Industries announced it has established the ITT Award for Excellence in Student Water Journalism, an international program to recognize aspiring journalists. By encouraging future journalists to report on water and the environment, ITT aims to move these issues to the top of agendas communities around the world.
The national awards will recognize high school students for outstanding reporting -- either print or broadcast media -- on a water-related environmental issue. The inaugural awards will be given in summer 2006 to students winning national contests in the United States and Sweden.
"Water is an essential element for life and our most precious resource, yet around the globe industrialized nations are squandering vast amounts while developing countries struggle to find access to a reliable supply of clean water," said ITT CEO Steven Loranger during a press conference. "By creating and supporting the ITT Award for Excellence in Student Water Journalism we hope to encourage young people -- our future leaders – to address these issues by raising the public's awareness of them."
About the New Award
The U.S. award will be administered in partnership with the Quill and Scroll Society. The Quill and Scroll Society is an international organization founded in 1926 by a group of high school advisers for the purpose of encouraging and recognizing individual student achievement in journalism and scholastic publication. The Quill and Scroll Society has granted charters to more than 14,104 high schools in all 50 states and in 44 other countries. In Sweden, the award will be administered in conjunction with Ung Media Sverige, a non-profit organization which aims to connect young journalists in the region and encourage the continued study of journalism. Further details about participating in the awards program will be distributed through these partner organizations.
Winning students from each country will be given a cash prize plus an expense-paid trip for the student and a faculty advisor to attend and report from the 2006 Stockholm Water Symposium, which takes place as part of the annual World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden.
The Symposium is a world-renowned gathering of international leading water experts from academia, government and industry who meet to develop effective and long-term global water resources management solutions, and is the venue for the International Stockholm Junior Water Prize, of which ITT Industries has been a global sponsor for nine years. This prize is the most prestigious international competition to recognize students for excellence in water science research. In 2005, national winners from 30 countries will compete for the international prize, which is also awarded during the Stockholm Water Symposium.
Source: ITT Inc.
