Kelechukwu Iruoma, graduate assistant at The Reynolds Center for Business Journalism, has been announced as one of five winners for 2023-24 in the Student Media Grant Program (SMGP) administered by the Program on Conflict and Development in partnership with the Department of Hospitality, Hotel Management and Tourism at Texas A&M University.
Funded by the Howard G. Buffett Foundation Chair on Conflict and Development, the $5,000 grant supports students with a passion for photojournalism, working in fragile regions, and having the tenacity to chronicle and share difficult stories.
According to the Program, this year’s theme is focused on the role of tourism and hospitality in supporting families and communities to avoid conflict, thrive during conflict, or recover from conflict.
Iruoma will travel to the Akagera National Park in Rwanda in East Africa in the summer of 2024 to document how the Akagera National Park became a top destination for wildlife tourism, making millions of dollars annually, after being severely affected by the Rwandan Civil War.
He will work with the national park rangers and tourist guides to take photos of iconic wildlife and environment and interview rangers, tourists, and park management to show the development of hospitality and tourism in the national park. He will produce an album of photos in addition to a feature story that will document the transformation of the Akagera National Park from a conflict-ridden national park to a hospitality and tourism-driven national park, attracting thousands of local and international tourists.
Senior Professor Edwin Price, who leads the Program on Conflict and Development, said Iruoma’s proposal ‘From decline to development: How conflict-ridden Rwandan National Park became a top destination for wildlife tourism’ was selected from over 30 applications.
He said, “We believe in the potential of your project and are very excited to work with you to make it happen.”
Iruoma is a graduate student of Mass Communication at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University (ASU).
