San Francisco – Winners have been announced in the Team/Individual Investigative Reporting Competition of the 2025-2026 Hearst Journalism Awards Program.
The winners were selected from 71 entries from 47 schools submitted in the final writing competition of the year.
First Place has been awarded to Livia Ziskey, a senior from University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Livia wins a $3,000 award for the article “‘‘Like you’re an animal’ Youth, others: Use of juvenile confinement breaks law.” Livia also qualifies for the National Writing Championship in June 2026.
Second Place, $2,000 award, Savvy Sleevar, Alex Cox, Kyla Pehr, Yasha Mikolajczak, University of Missouri
Third Place, $1,500 award, Lee Ann Anderson and Kai Johnson, University of Florida
Fourth Place, $1,000 award, Matthew Cupelli, University of Florida
Fifth Place, $1,000 award, Brooke Elliott, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The top five winning schools will receive matching grants.
Sixth-through-tenth place finalists:
Sixth Place, certificate, Michael Reo, Yana Savitsky, Malcolm Caminero, Shane Dimapanat, University of Southern California
Seventh Place, certificate, Grace Lewis, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Eighth Place, certificate, Julia Roeder, Michigan State University
Ninth Place, certificate, Lucas Hellberg, University of Oregon
Tenth Place, certificate, Anthony Cruz, Florida International University
The University of Florida has been named the winner of the Intercollegiate Writing Competition, earning the highest cumulative student point total across this year’s four writing contests.
They are followed by:
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
University of Missouri
University of Southern California (TIE)
Syracuse University (TIE)
Pennsylvania State University
University of Oregon
University of Colorado
Kent State University
The top three intercollegiate winners earn $10,000, $5,000 and $2,500 respectively.
The Intercollegiate Awards will be presented during the National Championships in San Francisco this June.
The writing judges are: Sue Campbell, Editor, Food and 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.
