Sahan Journal reporter Katelyn Vue was named Young Journalist of the Year at the Minnesota Society of Professional Journalists’ Page One Awards ceremony Tuesday night.
Sahan’s staff also scooped up awards in several other categories for work published in 2023, including first place for best beat reporting and best website, and recognition in the enterprise reporting, business reporting, data visualization and use of public records divisions.
Vue, who covers housing for Sahan, shared the first place Young Journalist award with Elijah Lutgens of the NRHEG Star Eagle in New Richland, Minn. Madison McVan with the Minnesota Reformer received third place in the category.
“Vue’s reporting on housing from the tenant perspective was notable and put her a notch above to keep those in power accountable,” the SPJ judges wrote. “Not only is Vue a talented writer, she’s using public records creatively and connects with the community she’s reporting on in deep and meaningful ways.”
Vue, who joined Sahan in 2023, also received a second-place award for best use of public records and a third-place award for enterprise reporting for a series of stories, including one on a lawsuit alleging lax city enforcement at north Minneapolis rental properties.
Vue’s public records award was for a story that showed how Shakopee officials discussed plans to kill an affordable housing project. Vue filed a data request for city emails about the Prairie Pointe project, which revealed that the Shakopee City Council had approved the development only for city officials to later attempt to walk it back due to public concerns about how it would impact their community. City officials had proposed that the planning commission vote to rezone the project site, which would have effectively ended the development. The city withdrew the effort a month after Vue’s story was published, allowing the project to move forward unhindered.
The project is being developed by the Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative, which serves a rental clientele that is about 90% people of color.
Vue, who grew up on St. Paul’s East Side and graduated from the University of Minnesota, said she was honored to receive the Young Journalist award so early in her career. The housing beat at Sahan has taken her from stories about housing development, to rent control and other tenant rights issues, to stories on unhoused residents at Camp Nenookaasi in Minneapolis.
“You learn so much about housing when you talk to people who don’t have access to housing. That was a whole area I didn’t expect to be covering,” she said.
To report the Shakopee story, she reviewed more than 400 pages of city emails sent and received between 2020 and 2023, and door-knocked to find residents willing to speak about their fears around the housing complex.
Sahan also received first-place awards for Becky Dernbach’s coverage of education, and for best website under the stewardship of Hannah Ihekoronye, Sahan’s former digital producer turned community engagement manager.
“Dernbach takes a community-based approach to covering students of color in Minnesota. Her work highlights the successes and failures of the school system as well as places current political debates into perspective,” the judges wrote.
Data reporter Cynthia Tu, environmental reporter Andrew Hazzard and Director of Editorial Chao Xiong received a second-place award for best infographic/data visualization for a story on how north Minneapolis is disproportionately impacted by the removal of damaged ash trees.
Sahan business reporter Alfonzo Galvan received third place for his reporting on plans for St. Paul’s former Sears building and other stories.
“It’s gratifying when our peers recognize the impact of our journalism and the dedication of the reporters who deliver it,” Sahan CEO Mukhtar Ibrahim said. “These honors reaffirm the vital role Sahan Journal plays in informing and engaging our communities.”
Sahan Journal is a digital newsroom founded by Mukhtar in 2019, and is dedicated to telling the stories of Minnesota’s immigrants and communities of color.
