Kid Reporters part of the Scholastic News Kids Press Corps cover important topics and interview fascinating people from across the country and around the world every day. Recently, junior journalist Sadie Kiel had the opportunity to speak with conservationist Jane Goodall about her life’s work and the youth program she started in 1991 with 12 teenagers in Tanzania called Roots & Shoots. Goodall’s work has inspired millions of students to “make the world a better place for people, animals, and the environment.”
Just a short snippet of Sadie’s exclusive interview with Goodall is included below. You can read the full-length version of Sadie’s article Seeds of Hope online on the Kid Reporters’ Notebook. If you know a kid with a “nose for news” between the ages of 10–14 who would be interested in joining the Scholastic News Kids Press Corps, the application process for 2017–2018 is now open! Click here to learn more.
Seeds of Hope
Jane Goodall encourages kids to help save the planet.
By Sadie Kiel
In 1991, conservationist Jane Goodall sat down with a dozen frustrated teenagers in Tanzania, a country in East Africa. Goodall recalls the teenagers saying to her, “Your generation has compromised our future, and there’s nothing we can do about it.” These teenagers inspired her, and together they created a program that is still making the world a better place 26 years later.
Goodall, who is one of the world’s most famous naturalists, is known for her unique method of living in the wild while conducting research. Her work has changed the way we view animals. For example, when Goodall began studying chimpanzees in Tanzania’s Gombe Stream National Park in 1960, she discovered that chimps make and use tools, just like humans.
Eventually, Goodall saw how human activity was harming chimpanzees, other animals, and their habitats. She made it her mission “to foster respect and compassion for all living things.”
Scholastic News Kids Press Corps
