ILLUMINATING THE RICH AND VARIED LIFE OF NEW YORK CITY

 

 

 

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Newsroom 2020

Meet the Newsroom Staff of Spring 2020

NY City Lens illuminates the rich and varied life of New York City—borough by borough, neighborhood by neighborhood, one good story at a time. It is produced by students at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. The site is staffed by students in the City Newsroom class taught by professors Dody Tsiantar, Mike Hoyt, Simon Surowicz with teaching assistants Edward Robbins and Christine McKenna.

Matthew Benedetti

Matt covers Brooklyn for NY City Lens, with a focus on Brighton Beach. He is a Boston native who holds a bachelor’s degree in Government from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He served as a legislative aide in Boston City Hall before enlisting in the military after the 9/11 attacks. He trained as a journalist at the Defense Information School and in 2012, was deployed to Southwest Asia in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Matt is a board member with Journey Forward, a nonprofit committed to ending paralysis. He volunteers as a counselor at his current unit, the 143rd Airlift Wing in Quonset, R.I.

Caroline is a multimedia reporter covering Queens, and the Instagram editor for NY City Lens with a special interest in sports, immigration, public health, and culture. She’s passionate about visual storytelling. Before joining NY City Lens, she was a reporter at The Brooklyn Ink, covering Sunset Park. Born and raised in Guangzhou, China, Caroline went to college in Beijing and graduated from the Communication University of China with a degree in broadcast journalism. She worked for AP’s video team in Beijing. She’s fluent in Mandarin and Cantonese. She is the NY City Lens Instagram editor.

Caroline (Jiawei) Chen

email: Jiawei.chen@columbia.edu
Twitter: @charolinee_19

TuAnh Dam

email: td2630@columbia.edu
Twitter: @tuanhdam

TuAnh covers Manhattan for NY City Lens. She is interested in sports, crime, and other human-interest stories. A Southern California native, she graduated from UCLA with a bachelor’s in Biology with a focus in Psychology before moving to New York City. She previously worked at CBS and NBC Nightly News. Her stories have also appeared in the Daily Bruin, Yahoo Sports, and ESPN.

Enxhi Dylgjeri covers Queens for NY City Lens with a focus on Astoria. She is Albanian born, and was raised in Astoria. She’s the only child of Albanian acrobats and is named after The Rolling Stones song Angie (yes, that’s how you pronounce Enxhi).  She was graduated from Dartmouth College in 2014 with a degree in Political Science, then spent five-years in digital marketing. She is motivated to share public information and tell stories through different media.

Enxhi Dylgjeri

email: Ed2875@columbia.edu
Instagram: @enxhidylgjeri
Twitter: @_enxhiladas

Currie Engel

email: mce2136@columbia.edu
Twitter: @Currie-Engel

Currie covers health, gender, and breaking news in Brooklyn and Manhattan for NY City Lens, with a focus on Bedford-Stuyvesant. Her work has appeared in TIME, The Brooklyn Ink, and The Daily Princetonian. Originally from Charlotte, N.C., Currie graduated from Princeton in 2019 with a degree in English and Gender and Sexuality Studies. 

 

 

 

Jenna covers Queens with a focus on Forest Hills. She is from Staten Island and completed her undergraduate degree in 2019 at Oberlin College, where she majored in Politics, Philosophy, and Cognitive Science. In her spare time, she likes to fence and play field hockey. Jenna is the NY City Lens Twitter editor.

Jenna Gyimesi

email: jbg2161@columbia.edu
Twitter: @gyimesijenna

Yoonji Han

email: yoonji.han@columbia.edu
Twitter: @yoonji_han

Yoonji covers Brooklyn for NYCityLens, with a special interest in social issues, arts and culture, and human interest stories, and a focus on Sunset ParkA Hong Kong-born Korean, she graduated from Columbia University with degrees in English and Business Management. She worked as a legal analyst at a litigation firm before turning to journalism. Yoonji has written for The Korea Times, The Brooklyn Ink, Crave Magazine, and Ink + Butter. She is the NY City Lens copy editor.

Angie focuses on human interest, crime, and social issues stories in Williamsburg, Cypress Hills, and other parts of Brooklyn. 

She studied Broadcast Journalism at Brooklyn College with a concentration in Puerto Rican and Latin American history. Angie produced a bilingual radio news program there, and has also done sports reporting for ESPN Deportes New York and worked in television production for Telemundo. 

Angie Hernandez

ah3731@columbia.edu
Twitter: @angiehendeztvr

Christopher Howell

email: cmh2244@columbia.edu
Twitter: @HeyChrisHowell

Christopher Howell covers Queens for NY City Lens with a focus on Long Island City. He grew up in New Jersey and has worked for a decade in radio as a writer, producer, and assignment editor. He would like to expand his video skills.

Carson covers The Bronx for NY City Lens with a focus on Highbridge. Born and raised in Texas, she moved to New York for college, where she graduated from New York University in 2019 with a degree in English and Journalism. Her work can be found in Fortune, VICE, Marie Claire, and Our Town NY. She is the NY City Lens newsletter editor.

Carson Kessler

email: carson.kessler@columbia.edu
Twitter: @CarsonKessler

Yuntong Man

email: yuntong.man@columbia.edu
Twitter: @YuntongMan

Yuntong covers Brooklyn for NY City Lens with a focus on Kensington. She is pursuing documentary filmmaking. She was graduated from Emerson College in 2016 and earned a Master of Arts in Instructional Technology and Media from Teachers College, Columbia University, in 2019. She worked for the United Nations and UN Population Fund as videographer and video editor for a year, then became the Communications Project Lead for UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network—Youth. She speaks Mandarin. 

Patrick covers Harlem and surrounding areas for NY City Lens, with a focus on Central Harlem, and with additional interest in transit, public housing, and policy issues. Originally from New Hampshire, Patrick graduated from College of the Holy Cross with a degree in Political Science and subsequently worked in a middle school and high school before moving to the Upper West Side. He is the NY City Lens Facebook editor.

 

Patrick Mulligan

email: plm2131@columbia.edu
Twitter: @PaddyMugs18

Aryana Noroozi

email: amn2195@columbia.edu
Twitter: @aryanamn

Aryana covers The Bronx for NY City Lens. She is from San Diego and earned her bachelor’s degree from Hofstra University, where she studied Rhetoric, and Radio, Televison, and Film. She is a multimedia journalist with a focus on urban social issues, immigration, and the environment.  Aryana is also a photographer, avid film watcher, and traveler.

Joaquim is a reporter and documentary filmmaker from Rio de Janeiro who covers The Bronx for NY City Lens, with a focus on Mott Haven. His work has appeared in ThinkProgress and the Brazilian magazine Trip. He wrote the documentary Encarcerados, about veteran prison guards in São Paulo, and directed episodes of the docu-series Quebrando o Tabu for the Brazilian cable channel GNT.

Joaquim Salles

email: jm4993@columbia.edu
Twitter: @JoaquimPVMS