North by Northwestern’s editor-in-chief, Amanda Litman, sits down with Huffington Post College editor Jose Vargas to talk higher education policy with Sec. of Education Arne Duncan and Melody Barnes, the Director of Domestic Policy:
The Huffington Post solicited education-related video questions from partner college publications across the country. The Postpublished the videos online, where readers could vote for their favorites. North by Northwestern submitted two videos, one of which earned the highest rating of the thirteen candidates. The victory secured Amanda a trip to the White House for a 20-minute interview with Duncan and Barnes on Friday, April 9.
The questions had to come from current university students and could be no more than 30 seconds long. Take a look at our submissions. In our first (and winning) video, Julia Haskins — a Medill freshman and North by Northwestern contributor — asks how the White House plans to encourage minority students to apply to top universities. In the second video, Medill sophomore Leezia Dhalla asks what the government can do about students like her, who have grown up in the U.S. but don’t qualify for financial aid because they are not permanent residents.
Updated 3:45 p.m., April 9, 2010.