When Baruch College student journalists visited Cuba in January 2016, they landed at a time of great ferment. The United States and Cuba had recently re-established diplomatic relations, private enterprise was growing and Cuba had created 50 WiFi hotspots to provide limited Internet access.

Yes, they found change – but also concerns about its pace and its impact. They talked with, among others, young tech entrepreneurs who had to sit outside on a stoop to access WiFi, artists who fretted they would have to commercialize their work for a growing tourist market and members of a synagogue worried about the future as young people leave Cuba for opportunities abroad. In words, photos and videos, here are the students’ reports. The stories were published by Baruch’s student-run online news magazine, Dollars & Sense.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
This reporting trip to Cuba was possible only with the help of many people, including Alison Griffiths, Interim Dean of Baruch’s Weissman School of Arts and Sciences; Richard Mitten, Director of Study Abroad, and his staff; Boo Choi, Director of Administrative and Financial Services at the Weissman School; and Glenda Hydler of the Journalism Department. Andrea Gabor, Bloomberg Professor of Business Journalism at Baruch, who conceived the Cuba project and led the first reporting trip there in 2015, provided invaluable support and advice. Joshua Mills, the Journalism Department chair, worked to help publish the students’ work.

Outside of Baruch, we thank Wilfredo Benitez, executive director of the Ludwig Foundation of Cuba, and his colleagues for setting up our program in Havana; and Collin Laverty and Adam Linderman of Cuba Education Travel, who made our travel arrangements. Special thanks to Jose Bayona, a Baruch journalism graduate, who took time from his job as a deputy press secretary at the city Department of Transportation to accompany us on the trip as an adjunct professor. Thank you all.

Prof. Vera Haller
Department of Journalism and the Writing Professions

Previous Cuba Coverage:
CUBA in 2015: Entrepreneurism on the Rise