Courtney Body’s Class Notes update could not have been a more perfect fit with this year’s schoolwide theme, Making a Positive Difference.  A freelance journalist, Courtney spent four years at CNN in Atlanta and then six years in Afghanistan. She is currently based in Iraq and reporting on events in Iraq and Syria, focusing on telling the stories of families displaced by war.

 

Courtney found her path early and marks the events of September 11 as the moment that crystallized her commitment to journalism. “I went to NYU and witnessed 9/11 happen while I was riding my bicycle downtown,” she recalls. “As an American journalist, I became very interested in the wars we then began fighting. I eventually went to Afghanistan and saw that the people there are not unlike you and me, that it's not all Taliban and burkas that one might see in the media, and I witnessed the accomplishments and mistakes the American government has made there.”

 

“I focus on human stories,” Courtney adds, “how Syrian teachers and parents try to educate their kids during the horrible war there, and here in Iraq, I'm focusing on the humanitarian issues for all the innocent civilians who have been forced to live under ISIS control in Mosul, which is now under intense violence as it's being liberated by the Iraqi forces. I always look back and thank Fay for being such an international school and giving me a strong foundation at such a young age where I could learn about other cultures and people.”