Moritz Florian, one of the recipients of the 2022 Gabriel Grüner School Prize, recently published his first major story in Strict: about his time as a shepherd in the Alps.
The best stories are often found in conversation. When the other person suddenly perks up and says, "Man, you absolutely have to write that down!" That's how it was with Moritz Florian, one of our student award winners from South Tyrol. For years, we've tried to get young people interested in journalism. Sometimes we succeed, and fortunately, it's getting better and better, thanks to our student competition, the Gabriel Grüner Student Prize, named after our friend Gabriel Grüner, who came from Mals.
Seventeen-year-olds from all over South Tyrol choose their personal reportage topic and research and photograph it under the guidance of the South Tyrolean weekly magazine ff and by Zeitenspiegel. The competition is organized by the Pedagogical Department of the Autonomous Province of South Tyrol, with the support of the Education Committee of the Municipality of Mals. The best students from each grade level are given the opportunity to complete an editorial internship, for example with Strict in Hamburg.
Moritz Florian, one of the 2022 prize winners, casually mentioned his summer job during a dinner. He had been helping out as a sheep shepherd in the Swiss Alps since he was 15. Of course, we told him: You absolutely have to write about that! His story about life at two thousand meters altitude was published online at stern Plus and on June 29th also in Strict with beautiful photos.