Photo courtesy of ABC’s “The View”
Fatima Moien moved to the United States from Pakistan at two years old, taking English as Second Language (ESL) classes in school. Today, at 22 years old, she is an award-winning journalist.
After just six months at Hofstra University, pursuing a graduate degree in journalism, Moien was featured in a video on ABC’s “The View,” won a Gracie Award and was awarded a $10,000 scholarship in honor of Barbara Walters for her work on the Lawrence Herbert School of Communication (LHSC) production “Live from Studio A.”
“To win something so massive and see the respect and garner attention for my story and for who I am, I know this is a bigger win than me,” Moien said. “This is a win for the university. It’s a win for other women of color.”
It all started when Moien was asked to host “Live from Studio A” and interview a guest star in November 2022. The segment featured Shavone Charles, the multi-hyphenate author of “Black Internet Effect.” Fatima’s producer sent the segment into the Gracie Awards, where it was then nominated for Best On-Screen Talent.
When her feature was aired on “The View,” Moien sat in the live crowd with her parents and was surprised when Whoopi Goldberg, one of the hosts of “The View,” announced she won a Gracie Award and that ABC was awarding her a $10,000 Barbara Walters Scholarship.
Only a year ago, Moien was asking her parents to allow her to be in the journalism graduate program at Hofstra.
“I was telling my mom and dad, ‘I will prove myself, I promise you,’” Moien said. “It makes me so emotional that things just happen because you work hard, and things end up finding their way.”
Moien feels as though this win dispels any doubts she had in herself.
“I’m a first-generation student. I’m a brown girl,” Moien said. “There’s not many [like] me in the [LHSC]. Being so limited to who I am, how I look and not getting a sense of relatability a lot of times, I do have to be a champion for myself.”
Mark Lukasiewicz, dean of LHSC, believes it is inspiring to see Moien’s success.
“Any young woman of color watching that program could say, ‘Maybe I can do that too,’” Lukasiewicz said. “I think that’s just tremendously valuable.”
Moien’s desired career path was not always journalism; she came to Hofstra with an undergraduate degree in criminal justice and now hopes to cover stories related to social justice.
“I stand out because I don’t see stories as a journalist,” Moien said. “I see it as someone who has worked in civil service; someone who has an eye for empathy and a unique understanding of people’s vulnerabilities.”
Moien is also a graduate research assistant for the Long Island Advocate, LHSC’s locally focused publication. Scott Brinton, one of Moien’s journalism professors at Hofstra University, believes she has done great reporting for the Wage Theft Project, which he personally works on, and the Excluded Worker Project. These projects work to expose the exploitation of immigrant workers on Long Island. Moien covered a protest in Rockville Centre in front of Nick’s Pizza, which was one of the main violators discussed in the Wage Theft Project Series. He sees many strengths in her journalistic work.
“I’m a big believer that one of the most important superpowers of any great journalist is empathy,” Brinton said. “I think she’s in journalism for all the right reasons.”
