The Journalism Education Association selected principal Gregory Fucheck as the journalism administrator of the year for 2025. The competitive national award goes to an administrator who supports scholastic journalism and First Amendment rights. The school’s newspaper, the Bronx River News, also will receive a $1,000 award.
Deborah Porterfield, the school’s newspaper advisor, called Mr. Fucheck to share the good news in August. Mr. Fucheck didn’t even know he’d been nominated as the news staff kept it a secret, so the award was a big surprise.
“I was sitting on the beach, laying under the sun when I received the call,” he said. “I wasn’t even involved in the signing up process; I just felt the shock as I answered the phone.’’
Mr. Fucheck said he feels honored not only to receive the award but also because his students and staff thought so greatly of him to discreetly nominate him for the award.
“Our newspaper’s existence, growth and success would not have happened without the enthusiastic support of our principal,” Ms. Porterfield said in her nomination letter. “When we launched our school newspaper in 2021, he encouraged me to take risks, saying, ‘School newspapers should be controversial. ”
Since that time, he has funded the newspaper’s expenses, even during tight budgets, and given the staff freedom to report the news.
Lara Bergen, founder and CEO of Press Pass NYC, an organization that helps public schools start and sustain student publications, said Mr. Fucheck’s support goes beyond his school.
“I know how important administration support is to a start-up student news program’s success, and how many principals at best don’t appreciate their role and at worst actively undermine and doom it,” she said. “Greg, however, has embraced the power and potential of scholastic journalism from the very beginning. In doing so, he has also ignited an exciting, newfound and much-needed awareness of the important role journalism education plays in student learning and school community throughout the Bronx, the borough with the highest poverty rate in New York City.”
Stephanie Decicco, a social studies teacher and a fan of the newspaper, also wrote a letter of recommendation for Mr. Fucheck. “I’ve seen first-hand what the newspaper club is capable of and the positive changes it’s brought to our school,’’ she said. “None of that would be possible without him.”
When the school newspaper staff learned that Mr. Fucheck had won the national award this fall, the students rose from their seats and started cheering.
“Mr. Fucheck has done a lot for this program and has given us the freedom to write our topics and opinions freely,” said Diosbeni Rojas, a member of the newspaper. “I’ve had the freedom to write many opinion pieces and it’s been a gateway for self expression.”
“I think it’s really important what you guys are doing in using your voice and speaking for the students,” Mr. Fucheck told news reporters during an interview. When asked to give advice to the newspaper, he said “Take this class seriously; you guys must be real journalists who write the truth and speak the truth.”
Mr. Fucheck will receive the award and deliver a speech about the importance of scholastic journalism at the JEA’s national convention in Nashville on Nov. 15. Three Bronx River News journalists, MD Ferdous, Zoe Reyes and Jomayra Amparo, will also attend the journalism conference and plan to cover the awards presentation.
