A national group of education journalists has lauded Sahan Journal reporter Becky Z. Dernbach for her yearlong project on two immigrant students at Andersen Middle School in Minneapolis.
Dernbach received a 2025 feature writing award on June 3 at the Education Writers Association conference in Baltimore, Maryland. The awards recognize the top education reporting in the country.
Her story, “They came to the U.S. to attend middle school. Then the immigration crackdown began,” followed two students, Yosi and Santiago, as they navigated their first year in the U.S.
What began as an effort to document the challenges facing newcomer students took a more sober turn as the Trump administration began an aggressive campaign to deport large numbers of immigrants.
EWA judges praised Dernbach’s commitment to following Yosi and Santiago across a pivotal school year, the trust she built with their families and the deeper story she was able to tell of their journeys to reach the U.S. from Mexico and Ecuador and the challenges each faced after arriving.
“The story offered amazing access into the lives of these students and teachers with great narrative writing. [It] provided gripping details about the journeys of these families to the United States,” one judge wrote.
Another said the project, “Wonderfully captured the developments in the academic lives of the students as well as the political changes on a national basis swirling around them.”
The story included graphic novel-style illustrations by artist Cori Lin capturing the students and their journeys.
“Becky’s story shows Sahan’s commitment to engaging community members in ways that empower them to safely share their stories with nuance and care,” said Sahan Journal Editorial Director Chao Xiong. “And it reminds us all that children’s voices should be represented more often in journalism.”
Dernbach said she has received more emails from readers on the story than any she’s written in her six years at Sahan.
“I hope it helped readers see into the lives and hearts of some of the people most affected by our country’s changing immigration policies.”
