Crossing The Divide

Meet Jah’inaya Parker, a senior from Commerce High School in Springfield, MA, who is one of our ‘Junior Fellows’ for Crossing the Divide. Jah’inaya shares why she wants to pursue a career in a mechanical engineering. For more information, go to xthedivide.org.

Rachel and Qainat compare how a 3D audio kit and a regular mic capture sound in a busy dining hall. Let us know if you can hear the difference!

We had our first round of editorial meetings to pitch story ideas and plan for the first half of our reporting trip. See more: xthedivide.org

Meet the reporters as they start their road trip across America.

See more: xthedivide.org

Music credit: "Jettisoned" by Podington Bear

Ahmad Naffory fell in love with the guitar in a Syrian grocery store, but he didn't know that his music would cause him to flee his home for another continent. Strangers in a strange land, Ahmad and his bandmates — the bandit poets of Assa'aleek — use their music to remember the homes they left behind as they make their lives in a new world. Explore the reporting

On Long Island, the rate of death from opioid overdose is rising the fastest in all of New York. Here, providers are being trained in basic communication and learning to treat substance abuse like any other chronic disease. It starts with a conversation that many doctors still don't know how to have. Explore the reporting

In the South Bronx, healthcare providers here are pioneering an approach that is way ahead of the rest of the country. This system, where all of the patients' needs are met in once place, allows them to live high-quality lives, despite a world of stigma outside of the clinic walls. Explore the reporting

To deal with the crisis on Staten Island, health officials and law enforcement are pioneering new kinds of treatment options. But residents are largely in denial about the problem, and those wanting to get clean are more likely to go far away for rehab – making them more vulnerable to relapse when they return. Explore the reporting

Rampant prescriptions for painkillers laid the foundation for a deadly heroin epidemic in the mostly white, blue-collar community of Staten Island. Now, the old and new epidemics exist just a few miles apart. But the stigma of addiction has stopped these suburban neighborhoods from confronting the crisis. Explore the reporting

The South Bronx, New York's poorest neighborhood, has been dealing with a deadly heroin epidemic for generations. We look at the origins of the epidemic, residents' efforts to handle the crisis and the birth of a stigma that continues to kill, as opioid abuse spreads to the suburbs and beyond. Explore the reporting