Journalist Amy Costello ’92 to Present Sower’s Seed Lecture on Friday, September 28

Trinity graduate and Emmy-nominated foreign correspondent Amy Costello ’92 will present the third annual Sower’s Seed lecture on Friday, September 28, at 7:00 p.m. in Notre Dame Chapel. She will reflect on how she has used her professional journalism career to shine a light on people’s struggles for peace, justice, health, food and shelter around the world. Her talk will be followed by a light reception and an exhibit of photo-essays by Trinity students. This event will kick off the festivities for Cap and Gown Weekend.

Amy Costello Established by Kelly Snider Dunn ’64 and her family, the Sower’s Seed program highlights alumnae who have incorporated the Catholic traditions of service and social justice that are central to the Trinity experience into their lives. The mission and teachings of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur are a special gift at Trinity, and through the generosity of the Sower’s Seed Fund, Trinity is able to share these gifts with new generations of Trinity students. This lecture series plants seeds of perspective, inspiration, and invitation as the Trinity community explores the experiences of Trinity graduates who have led lives in the service of others.

For five years, Costello was the Africa Correspondent for “The World,” a co-production of the BBC World Service, Public Radio International and WGBH Boston. Her stories were heard by millions of listeners across the United States and around the globe.

Costello has traveled extensively across Africa, producing in-depth, documentary-style radio reports on topics ranging from child labor in Ivory Coast to sex abuse among U.N. peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sierra Leone. She has reported extensively on children in Africa, including stories on child laborers in Ivory Coast, AIDS orphans in South Africa, and Ethiopian children bound for adoptive homes in the United States.

Costello visited Darfur, Sudan to investigate allegations of genocide for the PBS television program, “FRONTLINE/World.” During her three-week tour, she traveled with rebel soldiers, African Union troops, and civilians who had been displaced by the violence. She confronted militias and government officials accused of carrying out the genocide. Her story, “>Sudan: The Quick and the Terrible,” was nominated for a 2006 Emmy Award for Outstanding Feature Story in a News Magazine.

Costello was a producer at National Public Radio for three years before she moved to South Africa. Today she lives in New York City where she works as an adjunct professor at her other alma mater, the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Read Amy Costello’s first-person account of her experiences as a freelance journalist

Amy Costello’s online interview with Washingtonpost.com

FRONTLINE/World Interview with Amy Costello: Witness to a Crisis

Trinity Graduate Amy Costello ’92 Reports on the Sudan on PBS’ FRONTLINE/World

Amy Costello ’92 Nominated for Emmy Award for Her PBS Program on War in Darfur, Sudan