NPR Senior European Correspondent Sylvia Poggioli To Receive Honorary Degree from UMass Boston
On Friday, June 2, the University of Massachusetts Boston will award an honorary doctor of humane letters to National Public Radio’s senior European correspondent Sylvia Poggioli for her informed and nuanced worldview, for unflinching pursuit of the truth even in difficult circumstances, and for upholding the highest standards of journalism over a long career.
Poggioli will join fellow honorary degree recipients U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Illinois), Dillard University President Marvalene Hughes, and Boston Public Schools Superintendent Thomas W. Payzant before 2,535 graduate and undergraduate degree recipients at the university’s 38th commencement, which will be held at 10 a.m. on the lawn in front of the Campus Center.
“As National Public Radio’s Senior European Correspondent, Sylvia Poggioli speaks to us daily as she reports from postings across the globe,” UMass Boston Chancellor Michael F. Collins, MD, said. “She offers her listeners a broad perspective, meets deadlines under the most dangerous of conditions, and is a leader among the reporters who bring us the news of the world.”
Based in Rome, Poggioli reports often from other parts of Europe; from the Balkans; and the Middle East. Poggioli can be heard on NPR's award-winning newsmagazines “Morning Edition”, “All Things Considered”, and “Weekend Edition.”
Since joining NPR's foreign desk in 1982, Poggioli's on-air analysis has encompassed the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, the turbulent civil war in the former Yugoslavia, and noteworthy coverage from Prague. In early 1991, she supplemented NPR's Gulf War coverage, reporting from London on European reactions to events surrounding the war. Poggioli's reports on the Bosnian conflict earned two awards in 1993: the George Foster Peabody Award and the Edward Weintal Journalism Prize. Poggioli was part of the NPR team that won the 2000 Overseas Press Club award for coverage of NATO's 1999 air war against Yugoslavia.
The daughter of Italian anti-fascists who were forced to flee Italy under Mussolini, Poggioli was born in Providence, Rhode Island, and grew up in Cambridge. Her late mother was a professor of classics at UMass Boston. Poggioli graduated from Harvard College in 1968 with a bachelor's degree in romance languages and literature.
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UMass Boston will award 2,535 diplomas and certificates at the celebration of its 38th commencement. The general procession will begin at 10:00 a.m. The university will confer 1,852 undergraduate degrees and 683 graduate degrees. In addition to honoring the JFK Award winner, three faculty members will be recognized with the Chancellor’s Distinguished Scholarship Award, the Chancellor’s Distinguished Service Award, and the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award.
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UMass Boston prides itself on academic excellence, diversity, and its commitment to serving students and the greater Boston community. Through its six colleges—Liberal Arts, Science and Mathematics, Management, Nursing and Health Sciences, Public and Community Service, the Graduate College of Education – Division of Continuing, Corporate and Distance Education, and the McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies, UMass Boston offers undergraduate and graduate study in more than 150 fields. More information about UMass Boston can be found at: www.umb.edu.