Outreach and External Sourcing Pilot Program

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By Cecilia Panella

Since its inception, The SAIS Observer (TSO) has operated primarily as a student-driven school newspaper. We’ve produced articles on a variety of issues that concern the SAIS student body, and have endeavored to provide timely, accurate and incisive analysis on current events written to the standard of excellence that one would expect from one of the nation’s most prominent schools for international relations. But, the reality is that our world is not limited to the SAIS community, and before this year, our paper didn’t reflect a wider world view.

To that end, the executive leadership for the 2018-2019 school year tasked TSO with including a more diverse contributor base from outside the SAIS community while maintaining the high standards for academia and professionalism that has been its legacy. The result, as some of you may know, is the Outreach and External Sourcing (OES) Program. This program is geared towards the orientation of SAIS in the larger regional and global community, and is meant to focus our attention towards the voices that we would have otherwise had limited access to during our tenure as Hopkins students. Our goal is simple: feature external writers and contributors with different opinions and a high level of scholarship. The process is one of personal and professional networking and has taken our staff the better part of the summer to craft. We’re extremely proud of the results we have so far, and, moreover, are extremely proud of the precedent that we are setting for future generations of TSO leaders and contributors.

As a student body, we strive for a diversity of opinions in hopes of better informing our own. The Outreach and External Sourcing Program will provide the greater SAIS community with the opportunity to access those opinions.

As staff, we endeavor to provide comprehensive policy analysis, timely reporting, and do so with the best interests of SAIS students, faculty and staff in mind. The OES Program will incorporate students and young professionals with various experience levels and regional interests in the Washington, D.C. area and bring their analysis to bear on the topics of the moment.

As a leadership team, the executive board of TSO seeks to better the SAIS community through information and analysis access. It is therefore our responsibility to cultivate the widest and most thorough representation of information and opinions available, and make them accessible to the SAIS community. This program will broaden both our perspectives and our horizons, and we look forward to working with you for the betterment of our campus and SAIS experience.

Those interested in either contributing or providing a contact interested in doing so, please visit The SAIS Observer website or reach out to us at sais.observer@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you and helping to create a more comprehensive and globally-oriented student newspaper.