Story highlights Filipino maid Xyza Cruz Bacani has won a photography fellowship in New York

Attracted international attention with moving black and white street shots

Bacani moved to Hong Kong to work as a domestic helper when she was 19

Hong Kong (CNN) A domestic worker from the Philippines who moonlights as a photographer in Hong Kong will be leaving her job in May to pursue a dream career in New York.

Xyza Cruz Bacani, 27, has been selected as one of seven Human Rights Fellows by the Magnum Foundation . This summer, she will spend six weeks studying at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts . The fellowship aims to give aspiring documentary photographers the skills and support to pursue socially conscious photography in their home countries.

"My family was overjoyed when the news came in," Bacani wrote in an email while taking a quick break from babysitting. "My parents cried. Having their eldest to reach a dream is a big deal for people like us who have nothing."

'Honest' portraits of migrant workers

Bacani grew up in poverty in Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines. She left school at 19 to become a domestic worker in Hong Kong. Bacani has no formal training in photography but her black and white street scenes have captured the imagination of thousands through social media.

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