mtvU

mtvU partnered up with Myspace and the New York Times to give two people the opportunity to "Win a Trip with Nick" and join New York Times Pulitzer-prize winning Op-Ed columnist Nicholas D. Kristof on a reporting trip in Africa. The two essay winners, a college graduate or undergraduate student and an educator, get to accompany Nick on a 10-day trip to Africa where they experience both the horrors and solutions to global poverty first-hand.

Last year, Casey Parks, a University of Missouri graduate student and aspiring journalist, was the first student winner to embark on the trip. Nick handpicked her essay about American poverty out of pool of 4,000, and gave the native Mississippian her first opportunity to travel outside of the United States. This year, Leana Wen, a medical student at Washington University in St. Louis, and Will Okun, a teacher at Westside Alternative High School in Chicago, are Nick's newest travel companions. For more information on their journey and the Second Annual Win a Trip with Nick Kristof contest, visit The New York Times.