"Little Bill Clinton: A School Year in the Life of a New American" is a serial, narrative journalism project undertaken by The Christian Science Monitor in 2008-2009, as part of the 100-year-old newspaper's historic decision to abandon its daily print edition and shift its reporting energies online. In what industry observers have called "a move that could change storytelling for newspapers," reporter Mary Wiltenburg spent the year following third-grader and Congolese refugee Bill Clinton Hadam, his family, and his Georgia charter school in a series of articles, blog posts, and multimedia pieces.
Bill Clinton Hadam was born in a refugee camp in Tanzania. His father, from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, named his son in honor of US president Bill Clinton years before the family was relocated by refugee agencies to Clarkston, Georgia. The challenges they faced as they began their third year in the United States – job shortages, substandard housing, and a missing child – are shared by many families at their sons' innovative charter school. The International Community School, in Decatur, Georgia, was founded seven years ago to build community between its half-refugee, half-US-born student body. This year, a new principal is struggling to keep the young school afloat amid budget cuts, No Child Left Behind Act demands, and increasingly perilous political climate for school choice programs nationwide.