Kaitlin Harlow
UNC School of Media and Journalism | Global Studies
Student, 2019
Clayton, NC
Kaitlin Harlow is senior double-majoring in Photo and Video Journalism and Global Studies. She was selected as a UNC Global Gap Year Fellow in 2014 and spent a year volunteering in Central and South America before her freshman year. During her gap year she began carrying a camera everywhere she went. She discovered that it was an extension of her power and privilege as a U.S. American outsider, but also that it could become a medium with the power to connect people and reveal deeper stories. At UNC Kaitlin has been an active member of the Campus Y, UNC’s hub for social justice. As chair of Global Circle she consulted with stakeholders to develop a Global Contract, which incorporates critical ethical questions into student global engagement. Kaitlin has photographed post-hurricane environmental recovery in Puerto Rico, worked on a 40-minute documentary about UNC’s confederate statue, taught visual storytelling in an environmental science class dedicated to documenting to 2018 Clean Tech Summit, and produced short documentaries for projects like the Carolina Photojournalism Workshop and a series produced by Morehead Planetarium called Tales from the American South. Kaitlin believes in the power of visual communication for social impact and she is deeply optimistic about the mutually beneficial relationships that can form when people engage across difference with thoughtfulness and transparency.