
Eva Tesfaye
Eva Tesfaye is a 2020 Kroc Fellow. She started in October 2020 and will spend the year rotating through different parts of NPR.
She joined NPR after graduating from Columbia University with a B.A. in English and a minor in French and Francophone studies, where her studies focused on African literature and the history of French colonization. She also spent a year in Paris taking literature courses at the Sorbonne. During her time at Columbia, she reported for her campus radio station, WKCR.
She grew up moving around Africa and has lived in Uganda, Rwanda, Sudan, South Africa, and Kenya.
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Legislation is being proposed at the federal and state level to restrict foreign ownership of farmland, especially by China. The scrutiny comes after a Midwestern project was scuttled by military concerns and the flight of a Chinese spy balloon across the U.S.
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Tar spot, a fungal disease, first appeared in the U.S. in 2015 with reports in Indiana and Illinois. Since then, it has been spreading across the Midwest.
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced last month that it will not apply dietary supplement regulations to the hemp product CBD. The announcement has been frustrating for hemp farmers who have been waiting years for regulation.
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Legislation and programs in states like Missouri and Nebraska are paving the way to welcome large livestock operations by limiting local control over the facilities. Some rural residents worry about the potential pollution and decreased quality of life that will bring.
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Blue-green algae appears in lakes all over the Midwest during the summers and can make both people and animals ill. Few states have routine testing programs to check for the toxic algae, but some local and volunteer groups are stepping in to fill that gap.
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With the end of the pandemic possibly approaching, young Americans are getting ready to make up for lost time and lost partying, much like their great-grandparents did a century ago.
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Efforts to address hesitancy among Black people in America often overlook African immigrants, who get information from friends and family back home through social media platforms such as WhatsApp.
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Efforts to fight vaccine hesitancy among Black people often miss African immigrants who have a different colonial history and experience with Western medicine, which grassroots groups are addressing.
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The GO FlyEase is scheduled to be released on April 30. Some people with disabilities worry that they won't be able to get a pair because of the company's mass marketing strategy.
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"It's a lot easier to focus," says one sixth grader with ADHD. While some students fell behind while learning virtually during the pandemic, others focus better when they aren't around classmates.