Feet In Two Worlds at the Ippies. From left: Von Diaz, Lan Trinh, Cristina DC Pastor, John Rudolph, Mohsin Zaheer.

Four participants in the Feet in Two Worlds project, which was funded by the Knight Community Information Challenge in 2010 via the New York Community Trust, won Ippies, which recognize excellence in ethnic media. 

Reporters from Feet in Two Worlds, which provides training for journalists from ethnic media and helps them find greater exposure in public radio, won more awards than any other single organization. 

Cristina Pastor won an award for her commentary on how cases like the one against Dominique Strauss-Kahn can play out in the asylum hearings of accusers. Lan Trinh won in the video category for her coverage of how Chinese-immersion schools are attracting both parents with Chinese heritage and those without who believe that the NYC language programs will give their children a leg up.  

Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska won an award in the audio category for her wonderfully atmospheric piece on rooftop pigeon-tenders in New York, which aired on NPR.  Von Diaz’s story on the struggles of immigrant LGBT youth, which originally aired on Publig Radio International, also won an award. 

Some of the winners, like Pastor, are actually at the helm of online ethnic media startups. Pastor is the founding editor of The FilAm, an online magazine for Filipino Americans in New York. 

“Winning these awards is not only a great honor,” says Feet in Two Worlds director John Rudolf, “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.”

By Lisa Williams, Knight Community Information Circuit Rider