Journalism students paced Elon in a prestigious national contest often called the "Pulitzers of college journalism," which is open to students from 100 accredited schools.
Journalism students propelled Elon University’s School of Communications to a Top 20 national finish in the 2015-16 Hearst Journalism Awards Program for the third consecutive year.
The Hearst competition offers a series of 14 competitions in writing, photojournalism, broadcast news and multimedia each year. The competition is open to college students from more than 100 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 competition.
Elon placed 13th nationwide and third among private universities, trailing only Syracuse (10th) and Northwestern (11th). Elon recorded two Top 10 national category finishes: 8th in multimedia and 9th in writing.
Following are the students who finished in the top 20 of individual competitions, which often draw more than 100 entries from around the nation:
- Michael Bodley ’16 finished third in the Enterprise Reporting competition for “Eleven years after being approved, Montana’s medical marijuana industry faces an existential threat,” which he produced for the News21 program.
- Tommy Hamzik ’17 finished fifth in the Breaking News Writing competition for “Stadium becomes shelter as community celebrates Elon junior: Students, teammates and community members shared their memories of Demitri Allison, who died Wednesday, with two gatherings at Rhodes Stadium.”
- Gary Grumbach ’16 finished 10th in the Multimedia News competition for “Islamophobia in America.”
- Michelle Alfini ’16 finished 11 in the Multimedia Enterprise competition for “Rio de Janeiro works to hide its flaws before the Olympics,” which she produced as part of her Lumen Prize project.
- Kate Murphy ’15 finished 16th in the Multimedia News competition for “Religion’s lack of authenticity causing lack of influence in American society.”
- Cam Ciesielski ’17, Danielle Deavens ’16, Kaitlin Dunn ’16, Megan Foard ’16, Corey Shegda ’16 and Miranda Siwak ’17 finished 16th in the Team Reporting Multimedia News competition for “Checking the Other Box.”
- Lauren Cook ’16, Conor McKoy ’16, Tatum Pederson ’16, Blythe Tokar ’17 and Emma Haslun ’17 finished 17th in the Team Reporting Multimedia News competition for “The Lost Kids.”
- Alyssa Potter ’17 finished 20th in the Personality/Profile Writing competition for “Bodies for a backrest.”
Elon was 19th overall in the 2014-15 competition and 14th the year before. In 2009, Elon’s Randy Gyllenhaal ’10 took first place in the Hearst National Television Broadcast News Championship.
The top schools in the 2015-16 intercollegiate competition are: University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, The Pennsylvania State University, Western Kentucky University, Arizona State University, University of Nebraska, Indiana University, University of Montana, University of Oregon, University of Missouri, Syracuse University, Northwestern University, Kent State University, Elon University, Ohio University, University of Texas, University of Southern California, Oklahoma State University, University of Florida, University of Maryland and University of North Texas.