New York Press Club honors Pinto for his work
A Mott Haven Herald reporter is one of two winners of the first New York Press Club scholarship.
The dean of the New York City press corps, television reporter Gabe Pressman, presented the $1,000 scholarship to Fausto Giovanny Pinto at the club’s conference on journalism on Sept. 29 at NYU.
To apply for the award, Pinto, who served as the Herald’s summer intern, presented two of his stories.
One, headlined “Homes, hearts sink on Prospect Ave” told of the efforts of homeowners in the 114-unit Villamaria development to save homes threatened by shoddy construction. Residents credited the story with attracting the attention of elected officials who have now intervened in the dispute.
The second winning story, “For young and undocumented, a reprieve,” told of the impact in Mott Haven of President Obama’s new policy freeing immigrants from the fear of deportation and making them eligible for work permits if they arrived in the U.S. as children.
Reporting for the Herald “allowed me to write about subjects that I cared most about–immigration, minorities and the struggles of the working class”—said Pinto. “My experience allowed me to be immersed in the community I was reporting on–a community that struggles to be represented in the media in a fair and unbiased way.”
In accepting the award he thanked the “working class people of the Bronx who have allowed me into their homes and lives to witness their struggles and triumphs. As journalists we are nothing without those who allow us to tell their stories.”
A graduate of Hunter College, where he wrote for the Herald’s sister paper The Hunts Point Express, Pinto began working this fall toward a masters degree at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. The journalism school funded his summer internship.
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