Reporter Leonardo Blair during a visit to the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., while participating in the United States International Visitor Leadership programme in 2004. - Contributed
The Gleaner's award-winning investigative reporter, Leonardo Blair, leaves the island tomorrow for the prestigious Columbia University in the City of New York after being awarded a near-full tuition scholarship by the university's top-ranked Graduate School of Journalism.
Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism is the only journalism school in the Ivy League and administers the Pulitzer Prize, regarded as America's highest honour in print journalism, literary achievements, and musical compositions.
The cream of the crop
Blair, who turned 27 in June, was selected from what the school described as "a pool of very talented applicants" in an "extremely competitive" three-month-long selection process which ended in April. He will pursue a Master of Science degree in the first class of the school's new investigative journalism specialty, offered through the Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism.
Background
A graduate of the Caribbean Institute of Media and Communication (CARIMAC) at the University of the West Indies and Ardenne High School, Blair was the winner of several awards for investigative journalism last year. He was also one of 10 shortlisted candidates for the 2006/7 Fulbright Graduate Scholarship programme and was grant recipient in the United States Department of State's International Visitor Leadership programme in 2004.
The young reporter first bagged the USAID/Civil Society Award for Investigative Journalism for a provocative four-part series looking at the problems behind the Government's shift from state to community-based care for the mentally ill last May. He was selected again the following September for his contribution in a 10-part Gleaner series looking at children infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. The same series later attracted the Jamaica Broilers Fairplay Award for Excellence in investigative journalism.
Blair's journalism career began as an intern at The Gleaner in 2000 where he covered general assignment stories for THE STAR. After graduating from CARIMAC in 2001, he joined the staff of The Gleaner. He worked steadily across the general news beats before specialising in foreign affairs, public utilities and parliamentary reporting briefly. In March 2005, he found a niche in The Gleaner's new Enterprise Unit where he currently investigates and writes long-form stories.
