“And the Ippies Awards go to … Feet in 2 Worlds”

Ippies winners (l - r) Von Diaz, Lan Trinh, Cristina Pastor, Fi2W Executive Producer John Rudolph and Mohsin Zaheer. (Photo: Fi2W)

Feet in 2 Worlds journalists took home four Ippies Awards last night.   The annual competition honors excellence in New York’s ethnic, community and independent media.

The winning stories included Von Diaz’s deeply moving radio piece about homeless, gay immigrant youth in New York,  Cristina Pastor’s sharp and witty commentary on the Dominique Strauss-Kahn affair,  Lan Trinh’s video about a dual-language Mandarin-English program at a Manhattan elementary school, and Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska and Mohsin Zaheer’s team reporting on how Pakistani immigrants are bringing back the New York tradition of keeping homing pigeons.

Winning these awards is not only a great honor, it validates our unique approach – work with skilled immigrant reporters with great story ideas, carefully edit their work, provide them with excellent training, and maintain robust partnerships with ethnic and mainstream media organizations and academic institutions.

The awards ceremony took place at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, which administers the Ippies.  Here are the Fi2W winners:

Fi2W's Lan Trinh accepts her award from Ippies Master of Ceremonies Errol Louis and CUNY's Jehangir Khattak (Photo: CUNY)

Best audio: Best use of audio storytelling to highlight an issue of importance to a local community.

2^nd place: Von Diaz for “LGBT Immigrant Youth Struggle in New York.”

3^rd place: Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska, with help from Mohsin Zaheer, for “With an Eye on the Sky, Immigrants Revive Practice of Pigeon Tending in New York.”

Best editorial/commentary: Presents a convincing and compelling perspective.

2^nd place: Cristina Pastor for “Looking Back at the Scandal of 2011: The Seductive Frenchman and a Feisty Hotel Maid.”

Best video: Best use of visual storytelling to highlight an issue of importance to a local community.

3^rd place: Lan Trinh for “Immigrants and Native-Born Seek Chinese Language Instruction in NYC Public Schools.”

Fi2W is supported by the New York Community Trust and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation with additional support from the Ralph E. Odgen Foundation and the Sirus Fund.

AboutJohn Rudolph

John Rudolph, Executive Producer, is a journalist with more than 40 years experience as a public radio program host and producer of documentaries, podcasts and news reports. John produced the award-winning documentary Feet in Two Worlds: Immigrants in a Global City, which was the debut for the Feet in 2 Worlds project.