Several journalism students pace Elon in the prestigious national contest.
Journalism students spurred Elon University’s School of Communications to a Top 20 national finish in the 2013-14 Hearst Journalism Awards Program, which offers competitions in writing, photojournalism, broadcast news and multimedia.
The competition is open to college students from 105 schools accredited by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications. Student work is reviewed by professionals and awarded points by each of three judges in every individual competition.
Elon placed 14th nationwide, with category finishes of 14th in writing, 14th in photojournalism, 19th in broadcast news and 12th in multimedia.
Following are the students who finished in the top 20 of individual competitions:
- Nicole Chadwick ’14 placed sixth in the Broadcast News II competition for “125 Years: Diversity,” a story that covered how Elon has addressed diversity on campus during its 125-year history.
- Al Drago ’15 placed 10th in the Photojournalism News & Features competition for five news photos and three features photos he freelanced or took for the Raleigh News & Observer and the Burlington Times-News.
- Kate Riley, Grace Elkus, Addie Haney, Jason Puckett, Andrew Wilson, Christine Williams, Nicole Esplin, Kristin Martin, Meredith Browne and Andrew Creech, all 2014 graduates, placed 10 in the Multimedia News—Team competition for “Incarceration in America: An In-Depth Look at the Prison System in the U.S.”
- Andrew Wilson ’14 placed 11th in the Sports Writing competition for “Pay for play: Ugly football games serve more purpose than entertainment.”
- Grace Elkus ’14 placed 14th in the Multimedia News competition for “Despite challenges, schools find success with new lunch guidelines.”
- Katie Blunt ’15 placed 14th in the Enterprise Reporting competition for “Scared into silence: Sexual assault persists as underreported college crime.”
- Stephanie Butzer ’14 placed 18th in the Multimedia Enterprise competition for “Wild disturbances: Predator control deepen struggles for coexistence between wild canines, humans.”
- Kyra Gemberling ’14 placed 20th in the Feature Writing competition for “College days: Best of our lives?”
Here is the national Top 20 in the overall competition: Penn State, Western Kentucky, Missouri, UNC, Indiana, Arizona State, Nebraska, Northwestern, Montana, Oregon, Florida, Syracuse, Kent State, Elon, Georgia, Southern California, Ohio, Iowa State, Minnesota and Iowa.
Last year, Elon placed 21st in the overall competition. In 2009, Elon’s Randy Gyllenhaal ’10 took first place in the Hearst National Television Broadcast News Championship.