Elissa Nadworny
Elissa Nadworny reports on all things college for NPR, following big stories like unprecedented enrollment declines, college affordability, the student debt crisis and workforce training. During the 2020-2021 academic year, she traveled to dozens of campuses to document what it was like to reopen during the coronavirus pandemic. Her work has won several awards including a 2020 Gracie Award for a story about student parents in college, a 2018 James Beard Award for a story about the Chinese-American population in the Mississippi Delta and a 2017 Edward R. Murrow Award for excellence in innovation.
Nadworny uses multiplatform storytelling – incorporating radio, print, comics, photojournalism, and video — to put students at the center of her coverage. Some favorite story adventures include crawling in the sewers below campus to test wastewater for the coronavirus, yearly deep-dives into the most popular high school plays and musicals and an epic search for the history behind her classroom skeleton.
Before joining NPR in 2014, Nadworny worked at Bloomberg News, reporting from the White House. A recipient of the McCormick National Security Journalism Scholarship, she spent four months reporting on U.S. international food aid for USA Today, traveling to Jordan to talk with Syrian refugees about food programs there.
Originally from Erie, Pa., Nadworny has a bachelor's degree in documentary film from Skidmore College and a master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.
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Student loan scams are on the rise. We cover some of the red flags.
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NPR's Elissa Nadworny speaks with Belinda Deneen Wallace, a professor at the University of New Mexico, about a new Pew report finding 1 in 10 Black people in the U.S. were born outside the country.
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NPR's Elissa Nadworny talks with Tessa Hadley about her new novel, Free Love and pivoting to writing novels in her 40s.
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NPR's Elissa Nadworny speaks with Martin Van Der Werf, director of editorial and education policy at Georgetown's Center on Education and the Workforce, about their new college rankings.
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NPR's Elissa Nadworny speaks with actor Anna Chlumsky about Netflix's new limited series Inventing Anna.
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The College Board, the organization behind the test, also announced that the exam will shrink from three hours to two, and students will be able to use a calculator for the math section. -
Despite the omicron surge, college students are starting the spring semester on campus – and administrators are bracing for the worst. -
First things first: Get acquainted (or reacquainted) with your loans. And don't count on blanket loan forgiveness. -
While omicron has forced some colleges to delay spring start dates or go virtual, the majority of four-year colleges are starting the spring semester in-person.
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People are sitting out college in droves. During the pandemic, undergraduate enrollment has dropped nearly 7%. The long-term effects of this decline could have a dramatic impact on the economy.
