hearst awards

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On Nov. 14, I attended the Hearst Awards at SJSU in which Alex Shebanow, a young visual journalist and filmmaker, accepted the Hearst Award for his profound documentary “Fail State” that exposed the predatory nature of for-profit colleges.

I enjoyed Shebanow’s acceptance speech, particularly his overall theme that encouraged the importance of utilizing our freedom of speech through the power of journalism. 

He stressed that “journalism is crucial to our democracy” and that it was our duty to do justice for the voices unheard. 

He elaborated that the stories of the students who were victims of the for-profit college system was a never ending “tower of misery” as he dug deeper and deeper. 

He explained that he found his motivation to power through this project because of his attachment to the story and his internal will to bring justice to the students. 

I was impressed by the risks he took to make the film such as borrowing hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

I found his speech inspiring because Shebanow is relatively young to be receiving such an outstanding award. 

His success made me think about my own journey as a journalist and the stories that I could tell.

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