AmericanPoverty.org, a non-profit organization of photojournalists committed to social reform, has announced the results of it’s first annual Student Summer Grant Competition.
Max Esposito, 21, and Kristyn Ulanday, 22, undergraduates at Boston University’s College of Communication, were awarded first place in the Multimedia/video category for “Homeless, Not Helpless,” a documentary project focusing on the new Bergen County Housing, Health and human Services Center.
Their effort will focus on the comprehensive and innovative services offered by the Center to people who are homeless in northern New Jersey. “These two students have talent, drive, dedication and a strong commitment to telling this kind of story,” said Peter Southwick, Director or the Photojournalism Program at Boston University. “They are terrific young people; a pleasure to be around.”
Each winning entry will receive a $3,000 grant to complete their proposed project during the summer of 2010, as well as support for production and distribution from the staff at AmericanPoverty.org. The other student winner, Andrew Spear, a 22-year-old senior at Ohio University, received first-place in the Still Photography category.
“It is with a sense of urgency that we work to encourage coverage of poverty across America,” said contest co-judge Danny Wilcox Frazier, an award winning filmmaker and photographer “We received proposals from committed young photographers and filmmakers, a sign there are many students ready to give voice to those living on America’s fringe, those living in a constant state of uncertainty. As many photographers continue to document the disproportion of wealth across America, these students will give further testimony to the conditions of this nation’s poor.” Carlos Javier Ortiz, recipient of the 2009 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award and lecturer at Northwestern University, was also a contest judge.
The AmericanPoverty.org 2010 Student Grant Competition was funded in part by a grant from the Ramsay Merriam Foundation, and will be held annually in an effort to support and encourage young journalists committed to excellence in social documentary work in the United States.