2024 Features (Small Newsroom) Winner

About the Winner:

Marco Gutierrez is one of thousands of Nebraska high school students who are rarely seen or heard from as America debates, cheers on or braces for an immigration crackdown. He is here legally, though he exists here in limbo, as do so many of his fellow classmates. And school leaders and even most of his teachers don’t realize what Marco does while most American teenagers sleep. No one understood really, only Marco’s friends and loved ones, until Natalia Alamdari showed up in town and planted herself next to the high school senior. 

She waited for him as he worked the graveyard shift at the factory job outside of town – the company wouldn’t let her inside. She followed him as he cooked fast-food Chinese for the town’s diners. She rode shotgun as the sun rose, as he drove home from his factory job, changed clothes and headed directly to school. She witnessed him navigating a school day, fending off always-encroaching sleep. And she gained his trust – fighting through barriers of language, age and culture – so that he began to tell her about his past in Guatemala, his journey here, how he feels when he sits down to play the church piano on Sunday morning.

Comments From the Judges:

“This story is so well done on so many levels. Gaining access to Marcos and following him through his various work shifts and then school must’ve been such a challenge, not to mention getting access to his school and his teachers. What a feat! Besides that, the writing was excellent, as was the photography. The story is timely in our current political climate and the reporter has a talent for description and very naturally introducing data that adds complexity and context.”

“Compelling and thoughtful, I can tell this reporting took a lot of time and the context about changing demography in Nebraska and the future of the highlighted towns and counties was fascinating. The story of Marco’s day-to-day life working two jobs and going to school was stunning and mind-boggling. Fantastic reporting that was truly eye opening for me.”

Photo credit: Rebecca S. Gratz for the Flatwater Free Press