Senior Scores Selective Fellowship to Work With City Agencies

Apr. 18, 2011

Graduating senior Matthew Vann will get an intimate tour of city agencies this summer when he participates in the New York City Urban Fellowship, a nine-month program that will allow him the opportunity to work in mayoral and other city offices and explore issues impacting public policy.

Vann, who majors in broadcast journalism with a concentration in political science, was ecstatic to receive the honor.

"I thought I had won the political version of American Idol," he says.

A Mill Basin native and member of the Honors Academy's Scholars Program, Vann says he believed the fellowship would help him be a more effective journalist, particularly in regard to his reporting on government and politics.

"I'm really interested in field reporting," he says. "I want to get out there and convey people's stories."

Staff members in the Brooklyn College Office of Scholarships put Vann in touch with alumnus Ryan Merola, '07, a well-decorated scholar who also had been awarded the Urban Fellowship, along with the Mitchell Scholarship and the Harry S. Truman Scholarship, among many others.

"He walked me through the process of applying and told me what things to expect," says Vann, who is also editor-in-chief of The Excelsior and a cellist with the Brooklyn College Conservatory's orchestra.

Vann has interned at the New York City offices of The Economist and for the political unit of NY1's program Inside City Hall. He plans to head to a graduate program in journalism at Columbia University after he completes the fellowship.

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