KU News Release

KU graduate student runner up in YouTube contest for aspiring journalists

LAWRENCE — A video on preserving local wetlands by Rhonda LeValdo, a University of Kansas graduate student and a teacher at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, was a runner-up in a YouTube competition to encourage aspiring journalists to tell stories that may not be told in traditional media.

The competition — YouTube Project: Report — was offered in partnership with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting in Washington, D.C. The contest was made possible by Sony VAIO and Intel.

As a runner-up, LeValdo will travel to the Pulitzer Center when the grand prize is awarded and all semifinalists and finalists are honored Jan. 11-13.

LeValdo was chosen as one of 10 semifinalists after the first round of competition for a video about her grandmother. In the second round, the semifinalists prepared a video about a story unfolding in a community that touches on a global theme or issue. LeValdo’s video, “A Fight for the Land,” told the story of efforts to preserve the Haskell Baker Wetlands, an area of historical and cultural significance to Native Americans in Lawrence that became a point of contention after planners proposed building a traffic bypass through the area.

LeValdo said she was disappointed she did not advance to the final round but that she was pleased to see her video had been viewed more than 27,000 times. To see the video, visit the YouTube Web site or watch it below.

LeValdo attributed her success in the first round to her maternal grandmother, Rachel Blackwater, an Acoma Pueblo, who lives on the Laguna reservation in New Mexico. The competition assignment was to profile an individual the world needs to know.

LeValdo teaches television production at Haskell and produces Native Spirit, a weekly radio show on the KKFI 90.1 FM community radio station in Kansas City, Mo. Originally from New Mexico, she earned an associate’s degree in media arts at Haskell and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from KU in fall 2007.

LeValdo is an Acoma Pueblo. As a youngster, LeValdo lived with her family on the Acoma reservation near Albuquerque, N.M. Later, her mother, Alfie LeValdo, moved to Phoenix, Ariz., where Rhonda LeValdo graduated from high school.

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