Makini Brice, an NYU graduate student in a joint masters of arts program between the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute and the Institute for French Studies, has been awarded the Flora Lewis Fellowship through the Overseas Press Club Foundation.
Brice was honored with the award for her winning essay on the plight of child migrants in France who age out of the foster care system when they turn 18. As Brice notes in her essay, this circumstance is further complicated for young adults who are not French citizens and must find ways to remain in France legally after leaving the foster care system.
Jacqueline Albert-Simon, U.S. bureau chief and associate editor of Politique Internationale, and friend of Flora Lewis, presented the award to Brice at the 2015 Annual Scholar Awards Luncheon held at the Yale Club in New York. Acclaimed foreign correspondent, author, and filmmaker Sebastian Junger was the keynote speaker at the luncheon.
Brice, who has her BFA in screenwriting from the University of Southern California and is enrolled in the Carter Journalism Institute's Global and Joint Program Studies, was one of 15 aspiring foreign correspondents recognized by the panel. She will begin her fellowship at the Reuters bureau office in Senegal. Students from more than 50 colleges and universities, and 175 applications were considered for the fellowship.
Leading up to the luncheon on February 20, Brice and the other honorees were honored with a reception at Reuters hosted by editor-in-chief Stephen Adler, and later met with editors from BuzzFeed and the New York Times. To prepare for their fellowships, in the day following the luncheon, honorees underwent risk management and situational awareness training provided by Global Journalist Security at the Associated Press headquarters in New York.
Flora Lewis (1922-2002), who reported for a variety of publications, was a long-time foreign correspondent for the Associated Press and the New York Times.