In partnership with Schneps Media and CUNY, HITN-TV invites fourth-grade students in hard-to-count communities of New York City to participate in an essay contest to promote the importance of being counted in this year’s census
BROOKLYN, N.Y.– HITN-TV proudly announces the ¡Tú Cuentas! 2020 Census Essay Writing Contest, a city-wide initiative designed to raise awareness of the need for children to be counted in the 2020 Census, with a specific focus on truly maximizing the participation of families in the city’s hard-to-count communities.
Fourth-grade students from schools located in those communities within the five boroughs of New York City have been invited to participate in the essay contest. Students will write about the importance of being counted and how it will directly impact them, and their communities. One winner from each school will be selected to represent their school, and the borough in which they live, in this citywide competition. The citywide winners will then compete online for the title of HITN NYC Student Census Ambassador.
“We are pleased to partner with Schneps Media and CUNY to sponsor the ¡Tú Cuentas! 2020 Census Essay Writing Contest,” said Michael D. Nieves, President and CEO of HITN. “We hope that the contest will help these young students gain a greater understanding of the importance of being fairly and accurately counted.”
Silvana Diaz, Publisher of the Schneps Media newspaper El Correo, added that “El Correo NY is proud to join and sponsor the HITN ¡Tú Cuentas! Essay Writing Contest, as we are committed to informing and educating the communities we serve of the importance of being counted in the 2020 Census. It’s a big challenge ahead, but we are convinced that this interactive and multi- generational event will have a long-lasting impact.”
Colette Labrador, Director of the CUNY Census Project, said “We are proud to have students from CUNY’s Census Corps serve as judges in this citywide writing contest, which gives public school students from hard-to-count communities a chance to express themselves, share their stories, and help all New Yorkers achieve the fair and accurate census count we need and deserve.” She added, “This is yet another way in which the CUNY community has stepped up to ensure the success of the NYC 2020 Census effort, probably the most challenging and significant accounting that our city has ever undertaken.”
The contest will consist of three phases. In Phase 1, the participating schools will be announced. Students will start writing their essays and will prepare to submit them. In Phase 2, the essays will be submitted to CUNY Census Corps students, who will read and evaluate them, picking one winner from each participating school. In Phase 3, the winners, along with parents and school administrators, will join their peers from neighboring boroughs for a citywide celebratory event at HITN-TV headquarters, in which the winners will be lauded for their amazing work. The event will culminate with the unveiling of the ¡Tú Cuentas! online microsite, where guests will be invited to vote for their favorite essay, as part of the citywide competition. In June, the online winner will be announced and will be named HITN NYC’s Student Census Ambassador.
About Schneps Media: Schneps Media is a multi-platform media company. Our Hispanic Media Group includes the award- winning newspapers Noticia, El Correo NY, and noticiali.com, with a weekly reach of 70,000 readers. For over two decades, Noticia and El Correo’s comprehensive coverage of local issues has earned the trust of our communities from Manhattan to Riverhead.
About CUNY: The City University of New York is the nation’s largest urban public university, a transformative engine of social mobility that is a critical component of the lifeblood of New York City. Founded in 1847 as the nation’s first free public institution of higher education, CUNY today has seven community colleges, 11 senior colleges and seven graduate or professional institutions spread across New York City’s five boroughs, serving 500,000 students of all ages and awarding 55,000 degrees each year. CUNY’s mix of quality and affordability propels almost six times as many low-income students into the middle class and beyond as all the Ivy League colleges combined. More than 80 percent of the University’s graduates stay in New York, contributing to all aspects of the city’s economic, civic and cultural life and diversifying the city’s workforce in every sector. CUNY’s graduates and faculty have received many prestigious honors, including 13 Nobel Prizes and 26 MacArthur “Genius” Grants. The University’s historic mission continues to this day: provide a first-rate public education to all students, regardless of means or background.
