Jessica Lawson (B.A., Jan 2010, cum Laude, Convergence Journalism) has received the 2009 Murray Kempton Award for Undergraduate Journalism, for her piece Bushwick: Ethnographic Profile of a North Brooklyn Neighborhood, published in The Word (Hunter College) June 15, 2009.

The judges wrote: “This is an ambitious piece involving extensive on-the-street reporting. It explores what happens to a neighborhood as it plummets from middle-class safety to the dangers of urban decay, crime and drugs, and then rises again on the double-edged sword of gentrification.  Although some long-term, low-income, Latino residents are being pushed out by wealthier, hipper newcomers, she makes clear that Bushwick remains very much a work in progress.”

They stated further:  ”It’s evident that student journalism flourishes at CUNY, and that’s heartening both for the future of the profession and for the inquiry that is at the heart of both education and an informed citizenry.”

Congratulations Jessica!