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News Release

Last modified: Wednesday, April 27, 2011

IU School of Journalism wins Hearst Intercollegiate Writing Competition for the second year in a row

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 27, 2011

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The Indiana University School of Journalism has won the prestigious Hearst Intercollegiate Writing Competition for the second year in a row and will receive its national award in June in San Francisco.

The Hearst awards often are considered the "Pulitzer Prizes of college journalism." The IU school is celebrating 100 years of journalism education in 2011, so these awards are particularly meaningful, said Bradley J. Hamm, dean of the school.

"This year will rank as one of the most remarkable in school history for our undergraduate journalism program," Hamm said. "Never before in one year has the school captured the overall Hearst national championship in writing, had IU students win two of Hearst's six writing competitions and had a student selected as the Indiana collegiate journalist of the year."

The Intercollegiate Writing Competition consists of six monthly writing competitions. All nationally accredited journalism programs are eligible. Student winners receive scholarships in each of the categories during the year and the points earned across the six categories are totaled to determine the overall university winner.

"Obviously we are so tremendously proud of the students whose stories have been honored," said visiting Riley professor Thomas French, himself a Hearst and Pulitzer Prize winner, who worked with many of the students on their stories. "It's a testament to the depth of talent in our program that this success is based on the reporting and writing of 12 students."

Most of the award-winning articles were written for as the Indiana Daily Student newspaper and Inside magazine. French praised the student editors who helped prepare and present the work, and student media advisers Ron Johnson and Ruth Witmer for their support.

IU students captured first place in two of the six categories. Caitlin Johnston won in the Opinion category for "The Home Front," a piece which ran in Inside magazine about her Marine brother's deployment to Afghanistan. Danielle Paquette placed first in the personality/profile category for her piece titled, "The Shepherd's Lamb," about an evangelist's daughter.

IU students Johnston, Paquette and Caitlin Keating will fill three of the eight slots in the Hearst National Writing Championship in San Francisco in June.

Other top 10 articles (with links) include:

• Second place, spot news, Caitlin Keating, "15-year-old student shoots classmate at school"
• Second place, personality/profile, CJ Lotz, "The accidental tenor"
• Sixth place, feature, Biz Carson,"Night Owl A-bus driver"
• Sixth place, in-depth, Danielle Paquette, "Man dedicates life to saving exotic cats"
• Sixth place, sports, Sean Morrison, "Gray Goat Cycling earns own victory in 6th-place finish"
• Eighth place, sports, Rachel Stark, "Holding Out: Stephen Haas extends his running career with leap to the marathon"
• Eighth place, in-depth, Jessica Haney, "Kiss or crime?"
• Ninth place, feature, Kelly Cochran, "Far too common"

This year, two photojournalism students placed in the top 10 in the news and sports categories. James Brosher placed third and Peter Stevenson placed 10th.

All students who placed in the top five in each competition won a scholarship. IU will earn $10,000 and a medallion for coming in first place in the writing competition.

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