HOW THESE STORIES WERE PRODUCED

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reporter Christopher Leonard began reporting on the Marshall Islanders’ migration to Arkansas in 2002 after he came upon a group of men playing softball in Springdale. They wore Hawaiian-print shirts, chatted in an exotic language and were friendly when Leonard approached. This encounter spawned several news articles about the growing Marshallese community in Arkansas.
Intrigued by what he found, Leonard sought a World Affairs Journalism Fellowship, proposing to follow the Marshall Islanders immigration to its roots in the far Pacific.
Leonard is a business reporter in the Democrat-Gazette’s Northwest Arkansas newsroom in Lowell. The fellowship paid for all of his expenses in traveling to the Marshall Islands and for his fieldwork there for three weeks.
The fellowship is administered by the International Center for Journalists, the World Affairs Councils of America and the Newspaper Association Managers Inc. Funding is provided by grants from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation in Oklahoma City. Nine other journalists also were selected for fellowships in 2004 and traveled to other parts of the world.
The purpose of the fellowship is to increase international reporting in regional newspapers throughout the nation. The fellows were to write stories that illustrated how events overseas affected their home communities.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette sent staff photographer Benjamin Krain to join Leonard in the islands for one week. Together they visited the atolls of Majuro, Kwajalein (where Ebeye is located) and Arno.
Krain and Leonard couldn’t have completed their task without the help of numerous Marshallese citizens whose generosity was unlimited.
— Griffin Smith,
Executive Editor

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