Vanguard Award Goes to Brooklyn College Graduate Grace Hernandez

Recent graduate Grace Hernandez, seen here with her family, receives the 2005 Vanguard Award at Brooklyn College on June 2 from Mitchel Levitas of the New York Times. The annual $500 award is bestowed by an alumni group from the student newspaper Vanguard, which was shut down in 1950 by the Brooklyn College President Harry Gideonse because the editorial staff had declined to show their faculty adviser articles and editorials before they were printed. This celebrated case of censorship marked a low point in student journalism. More than fifty years later, the veterans of Vanguard have built successful careers in print and broadcast journalism and are active supporters of the Brooklyn College program in journalism.

Hernandez won the award for her professionalism and objectivity during her time as editor of the Brooklyn College student paper Kingsman, a tenure that coincided with the Princeton Review ranking Brooklyn College third in the nation for best student newspapers. Hernandez, who graduated in January, is now a production assistant at Adventure Publishing Group (www.adventurepub.com), publishers of magazines for the toy and licensing industry.

"I am extremely honored to be amongst the list of Brooklyn College pioneers like the alumni on the Vanguard staff," Hernandez told the Vanguard alumni, who included Albert Lasher and Herb Dorfman along with along with Mitchel Levitas. "The Vanguard Prize is donated by alumni who have experienced the struggles of college journalists. What makes this prize so important is that they still come back to Brooklyn College and believe in the students at Brooklyn College. Being chosen as this year's recipient has given me a boost of confidence to take the next steps in my journalism career."