Latino personal finance reporting winners named

Journalists from The Roanoke Times, El Sentinel, and Real Atlanta will receive the first McGraw-Hill Personal Finance Journalism Awards, according to the International Center for Journalists. The winners produced stories that helped raise financial literacy in Hispanic communities.

The journalists were among 30 reporters from print, online, radio and television news organizations who participated in a 13-week online program, taught in English and Spanish, designed to provide in-depth knowledge of consumer finance issues of particular importance to Latinos.

The International Center for Journalists administered the program, which was funded by The McGraw-Hill Companies. Over three years, this program has trained more than 100 journalists writing for Hispanic communities throughout the United States.

The winners are:

First Place: Adriana Gomez for her article “When Immigration Meets the American Dream” in the The Roanoke (Va.) Times. The article pinpoints the new challenges immigrants face in securing a home loan during a recession. (Gomez was an intern at the Times and now works for the El Paso Times in Texas.)

Second Place: Enrique Flor of El Sentinel newspaper in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for his article “Defensa gratuita para foreclosures.” He produced a Web story and video on how Latinos can seek free legal support when faced with possible foreclosures.

Third Place: Ana Carolina Gonzalez, for her story “Guia para elegir una Consejeria de Credito,” a step-by-step guide to finding a credit counselor, published on the Real Atlanta Web site (http://www.real-atlanta.com).

The winners will be honored on Oct. 27 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. The keynote speaker for the event will be New York Times personal finance columnist Ron Lieber. A panel discussion will follow, featuring Lieber and Hispanic personal finance expert Xavier Serbia, the Spanish-language instructor for the McGraw-Hill course. The panel will be moderated by ICFJ’s president, Joyce Barnathan.

Read more here.  Disclosure: I was the instructor for the English version of the course and nominated stories, including the one by Gomez, written by my students.