Kiarra Lyles

Hometown: Germantown, MD Professor: Regina Marchi Class: Media and Struggles for Democracy in Central America Takeaway: Writing this piece helped me realize that storytelling can be a powerful tool in shedding light on global issues. Travel stories are not only a personal reflection, but pieces that aim to inform, amplify voices, and instill compassion. As award-winning writer Lavinia Spalding said, “travel writing is endowed with the power to make us care.” It is storytelling that allows the writer to intimately delineate people and events we would not have cared about otherwise.