Jesse McLean in Bahrain, where he worked on the Star's "Arab Awakening" series. Feb 16 2011. Lucas Oleniuk/Toronto Star

Eyeopener alumnus and Toronto Star reporter Jesse McLean received the 21^st annual Edward Goff Penny Memorial award last Friday for his investigative work in Toronto, and his foreign reporting in Kuwait and Bahrain as part of the Star’s “Arab Awakening” series.

The award presented by the Canadian Newspaper Association recognizes Canada’s best journalists between the ages of 20 and 25.

McLean, 24, graduated from Ryerson’s journalism program in 2009. He served as an arts and life editor at The Eyeopener in 2007 before joining our news team. In 2009 he won a Johnnie for “The war on plagiarism,” an investigative piece for the features section with fellow Eye alumnus Adrian Morrow.

Graeme Smith, a fellow Eyeopener alumnus now working for the Globe and Mail won the same award in 2002.