Sharing his love for storytelling

Lionel Foster speaks at the 2022 Baldwin Prize award ceremony - Krieger School alum Lionel Foster created the Baldwin Prize to spark a new generation of young writers at his high school alma mater, Baltimore City College In 2015, Lionel Foster received an honor treasured by Baltimore City College graduates: an invitation to be inducted into the high school's alumni hall of fame. Foster accepted the recognition from his alma mater with great pride, but also with the sinking feeling that the strides that he'd made in journalism and nonprofit communications didn't measure up to the achievements of his fellow inductees. At the time, Foster, who earned his bachelor's degree in Writing Seminars from Johns Hopkins University in 2002, was a communications manager at the Urban Institute, a research organization in Washington, D.C., that provides data and evidence to help advance upward mobility and equity. He had also worked in public service journalism, dedicated to highlighting economic and racial inequalities for outlets like the Baltimore Sun , Baltimore City Paper , and the Urbanite . Even so, Foster felt compelled to do more, and with his induction speech he launched the Baldwin Prize , an annual essay-writing competition for Baltimore City College students. Foster saw the contest as an opportunity to make a personal commitment to community service built on his love for the art of storytelling. A cornerstone experience.