San Francisco – Winners have been announced in the Narrative Video Storytelling Competition of the 2025-2026 Hearst Journalism Awards Program. The winners were selected from 97 entries from 57 schools submitted in the first multimedia competition of the year.
First Place has been awarded to Quincy Marks, a 2025 graduate from University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill. Quincy wins a $3,000 scholarship for the story titled “One Percent Chance.”
Second Place winner Aayas Joshi, a senior from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill wins $2,000 for the story titled, “Adrift: Forgiving the Flood.” Aayas also qualifies for the Hearst Multimedia Championship in June 2026.
Other top five winners:
Third Place, $1,500 award, Ashleigh Lucas, University of Florida
Fourth Place, $1,000 award, Jindong Tian, Pennsylvania State University
Fifth Place, $1,000 award, Adin Parks, Western Kentucky University
The top five winning schools will receive matching grants.
Sixth-through-tenth place finalists:
Sixth Place, certificate, Von Smith, Western Kentucky University
Seventh Place, certificate, Reese Niccholls, Syracuse University
Eighth Place, certificate, Jackson Ingvoldstad, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Ninth Place, certificate, Nicole Borman, University of Florida
Tenth Place, certificate, Mackenzie Cutler, Arkansas State University
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is in first place in the Intercollegiate Multimedia Competition with the highest accumulated student points in the first multimedia competition.
They are followed by:
Western Kentucky University
University of Florida
Pennsylvania State University
Syracuse University
Florida International University
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
University of Kentucky (tie)
Michigan State University (tie)
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 multimedia competitions and presented during the National Championships in San Francisco this June.
The multimedia judges are: Lauren Frohne, Lead Video Journalist, The Seattle Times; Jim Seida, Producer, NBC News; Ed Ou, Visual Journalist/Documentary Filmmaker.
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 105 universities of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication with accredited undergraduate journalism programs are eligible to participate in the Hearst competitions.
