If you’re a university student interested in the world, I invite you to apply for my 2025 win-a-trip contest. I’ve been holding these contests since 2006, each time taking the winner along with me on a reporting trip to cover global issues. My aim is to get more young people interested in neglected topics and writing about them.

The winner may write for The New York Times. HBO made a documentary called “Reporter” based on my 2007 win-a-trip journey to the Democratic Republic of Congo with the winners Leana Wen and Will Okun; it’s available to stream on Amazon and iTunes if you want to see what you’re getting yourself in for. The contest opens now and the entry deadline is 11:59 p.m. E.S.T. on Jan. 31, 2025.

Be forewarned that the travel is sometimes tough. The joke within The New York Times is that first prize is a trip with me; second prize is two trips with me. We may be bouncing over awful roads and eating wretched food, and you may get sick. “Hotel” rooms may come with bugs and rats. And we’ll be on the go from dawn to dusk.

The contest is open to students enrolled in an American two- or four-year college or university, either as an undergraduate or at the graduate level. Please use the form below to submit an essay of up to 700 words explaining why we should pick you to win the trip. Tell us about yourself and what you would bring to the reporting and to readers. If you’d like, you may also suggest where we should go and what you would like to write about for The Times, and/or discuss your aspirations and what you would like to be doing in 10 years. Our goal is to get a better understanding of you, your accomplishments and your writing ability. Read the full rules below.

What are we looking for? Someone very smart, with excellent communication skills, so that your writing and posts on social media will elevate these issues. If you blog or have other writing, photography or video experience, be sure to mention it and include links; you’re also welcome to include a short bio to give us more of a sense of your interests and accomplishments. Most of the recent winners have had a journalism background, but not all; some have been undergraduates and graduate students with a different focus or in professional schools.

My plan is to travel for a week or two with the winner, perhaps in the late spring or early summer. I’ll try to work around the winner’s schedule. Your expenses will be covered, but there’s no cash award. I’m not sure just where we’ll travel, and I’m not even sure that it’ll be abroad. Possibilities include Zimbabwe or Congo, the American South or Native American reservations, Bangladesh or Papua New Guinea, or perhaps somewhere else entirely.

The deadline for submissions is 11:59 p.m. E.T. on Jan, 31, 2025.

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United States Magistrate Judge Ryon M. McCabe, of the Federal District Court in West Palm Beach, Fla., granted the government’s request on Monday to keep the suspect, Ryan W. Routh, in jail without bond. So far, Mr. Routh has been charged with unlawful possession of a firearm as a felon, which carries a penalty of up to 15 years in prison, and with possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.

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