San Francisco – Winners have been announced in the Feature Writing Competition of the 2025-2026 Hearst Journalism Awards Program. The winners were selected from a record 162 entries from 87 schools submitted in the first writing competition of the year.
First Place has been awarded to Hannah Parcells, a senior from Colorado State University. Hannah wins a $3,000 scholarship for the article “‘It’s going to happen to someone else’: Students allege use of date-rape drugs at off-campus fraternity parties, accuse CSU of inaction.”
Hannah also qualifies for the National Writing Championship in June 2026.
Second Place, $2,000 award, Betsy Schlehuber, Elon University
Third Place, $1,500 award, Sarah Mulu, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Fourth Place, $1,000 award, Peggy Dodd, University of Oklahoma
Fifth Place, $1,000 award, Noah Weinberg, Syracuse University
The top five winning schools will receive matching grants.
Sixth-through-tenth place finalists:
Sixth Place, certificate, Brian Eife, Pennsylvania State University
Seventh Place, certificate, Lincoln Roch, University of Colorado
Eighth Place, certificate, Yana Savitsky, University of Southern California
Ninth Place, certificate, Siena Duncan, University of Florida
Tenth Place, certificate, Bailey Zitko, San Francisco State University
Syracuse University is leading in the Intercollegiate Writing Competition with the highest student point totals in the first of four writing competitions.
They are followed by:
Colorado State University
Elon University
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
University of Florida
University of Oklahoma
Pennsylvania State University
University of Colorado (tie)
University of Southern California (tie)
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
The top three intercollegiate winners earn $10,000, $5,000 and $2,500 respectively. The final intercollegiate
winners will be announced after the completion of the four writing competitions and presented during the National Championships in San Francisco this June.
The writing judges are: Sue Campbell, Editorial/Food Culture, Minnesota Star Tribune; Suki Dardarian, retired journalist/former editor, Minnesota Star Tribune; Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, Editor in Chief, San Francisco Chronicle.
The 66th annual Hearst Journalism Awards Program includes four writing, two photo, one audio, two television, one podcast and four multimedia competitions offering up to $700,000 in scholarships, matching grants and stipends. Currently, there are 104 universities of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication with accredited undergraduate journalism programs are eligible to participate in the Hearst competitions.
