New Orleans

We were pleased to see the Pittsburgh Post Gazette story featuring not one, but FOUR 2008 Echoing Green Fellows (Chris Koch, Andrew Butcher, Reuben Teague and Will Bradshaw) this weekend.  The story highlights their collaborative work in New Orleans called Project Sprout.  Using a model of land remediation that was developed at Carnagie Mellon University, Project Sprout is tackling the huge problem of 65,000 blighted properties by planting Sunflowers and harvesting the seeds for biofuel.

As 2007 Echoing Green Fellow John Alford kicks off his second year as principal of Langston Hughes Academy Charter School in New Orleans, he is already getting his props in the national news.  Very recently, the New York Times ran a photo of him in an article highlighting the turnaround effort in New Orleans public schools. The article highlights one of the tough problems of lifting New Orleans education out of its funk: where do students from failing schools go once the city shuts down their school?