2002

I did my scholarship work in Buenos Aires, studying for a Masters in Journalism at the Universidad Torcuato di Tella and La Nación. My thesis was an investigation of the factories occupied by workers in Argentina following the 2001 economic crisis. I was also a southern cone correspondent for The Miami Herald.

That experience was instrumental in my career. When I received the scholarship I was working at the Miami Herald covering the Miami-Dade school district. Within a year I became a foreign correspondent and was hired by the National Public Radio program “Marketplace” as its Latin American correspondent. I spent 5 years there and could never have made this leap without the scholarship.

Afterwards I spent a semester at Princeton University as a professor of journalism, part of the “Ferris Professorships in Journalism” grant. In 2010, I became news director at a public radio station in Miami, where I now work.

I remember, and always will, the moment I received news of the IAPA scholarship. I was in the newsroom of El Comercio. An e-mail from a friend in Miami came ahead of many more that followed. I read it twice and ran to the bathroom to yell out loud my joy over that prize. When I returned, the applause, congratulations and accolades fell on a Henry Rafael who could not contain his happiness. I was 25. Months later I started my journey and I was forever changed. I left Peru as El Comercio’s chief reporter and returned years later with a Master’s of Science in Public Policy and International Relations from Boston University, a city I confess I now call my second home.

I returned to Lima as a consultant for some companies. I went back, after several job opportunities in the U.S. and Europe, where I worked and spent six years of my life studying and working in prestigious organizations such as the IAPA where I could learn and share – this time as an employee of the organization -- my experience in strategic planning, policy and journalism. I chose not to study a course in journalism in the U.S. I applied on my own for a master’s and the award helped cover the first year of study. It was certainly a great incentive to begin and continue a path that today, looking back, I can only be grateful for.