The new board president of News Decoder’s nonprofit wants to help students tell their stories and discover a wider world.
Nouvelles-Découvertes Board President Christian Henry.
Christian Henry has a portal in his office.
To some, it’s a photo of a turquoise-water beach — commonplace decor in offices around the world. It often makes a cameo in his Zoom background.
But to Henry, the new board president of Nouvelles-Découvertes — the registered French nonprofit that governs News Decoder — his beach photograph is the emblem of, and portal to, his time championing education and students.
“My passion for science really started as a young person, just curiosity, interest in learning, finding joy in the process of learning — that’s where I started,” Henry said. “Where I’ve ended up is watching people grow and find wonder and discover in some ways themselves through the process of learning. So that’s my attachment to beautiful places and science now.”
Originally a biology and marine science teacher, Henry first encountered News Decoder in 2018 through founder Nelson Graves. Over the past five years, Henry has not only been board member and treasurer of Nouvelles-Découvertes, but has also watched the team grow from one person to seven, across several grants.
“It’s consistently provided a channel for young people to engage in their world as storytellers, observers, journalists, and in doing that, offers them the chance to exercise agency and involvement that’s not a customary part of their school curriculum,” said Henry, who succeeds Graves as board president.
Connecting students to a wider world
Henry observed other constants at News Decoder throughout his years on the board, such as the cross-border connections between students.
“What’s different about it is the scale of its impact,” Henry said. “It’s been able to organically grow. All of that has depended on having access to really talented, veteran correspondents who mentor and edit.”
Much of Henry’s love of education is linked with his co-founding of The Island School, located in the Bahamas. Henry sees The Island School as only the start of his looming list of accolades in student initiatives. Today, he is also the principal of Narwhal Talent Partners, specialized in education ventures in the greater Boston area, where he is currently based.
“I really enjoy watching young people grow,” Henry said. “But young people in high school are not always offered the chance to prove that they can generate knowledge, rather than just consume it, that they can work together in a team, that they can influence a conversation and present what they’ve learned to people beyond the classroom. That process is inspiring to watch.”
It is a large part of his motivation to serve as board president at News Decoder, where he sees the biggest challenge to modern society as facing problems with different perspectives. Henry believes News Decoder can change the tide in fostering acceptance with cross-border connections.
“Young people engaging with people who don’t see the world they do, who have developed expertise in something they are interested in, and capturing different points of view and telling a story about it, helps create an understanding and a community that is better prepared for the future,” Henry said.
Graves said that Henry has been there with News Decoder as it has grown over the past five years and will help take it to new heights in coming years. “Christian is a selfless and devoted educator, with the best interests of both young people and the organization at heart,” Graves said. “As president of our board, he brings a startup mentality, discipline tempered by flexibility, a keen interest in people and respect for the financial health of our nonprofit.”
Knowledge with action
A global citizen himself, Henry grew up between the United States and Europe while his father served in the U.S. military.
“I appreciate what it means to belong, and also feel like an outsider and make new friends in new places,” Henry said. “That informs part of my choice to spend part of my early career overseas, in the Bahamas, and also my continued involvement in News Decoder.”
“A favorite saying that I learned from a student at the Island School was, ‘To know and not to do, is not to know’,” Henry said. “So knowledge without action is the same thing as not knowing.”
That call to action is already apparent in his tenure as president. “Christian is a collaborator and a doer,” said Maria Krasinski, News Decoder’s managing director. “Whether seeking out like-minded organizations for insights or streamlining operations to put more focus on our core educational work, he’s actively solving for the steps that will take News Decoder to the next level.”
Looking towards the future, Henry sees action-based knowledge and education as the key strengths towards expanding News Decoder.
“I feel like young people invited to pull together a story about the environment helps them find themselves and locate what actions they can take in telling the story, and making a difference for the environment,” Henry said. “Unless you can see yourself in the story, you don’t take action.”
Henry added that News Decoder’s active journalism invites students to make their stories part of the wider narrative. It is the stuff that makes student journalism from corners of the world relevant to all: A portal into another culture or country across the globe.
“That’s my hope for News Decoder,” Henry said. “That it can create a context where that can consistently happen across schools, across geographies.”
Kaja Andrić joined the News Decoder team as an intern in January 2024. She is a second-year Journalism student at New York University. She is also studying Romance Languages with a concentration in French and Italian. Andrić has written for both NYU’s Washington Square News and Cooper Squared publications. Previously, she was a correspondent for the Florida Weekly newspaper’s Palm Beach community chapter. In 2022, she was Florida Scholastic Press Association’s Writer of the Year.
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