San Francisco – Winners have been announced in the Personality/Profile Writing Competition of the 2025-2026 Hearst Journalism Awards Program. The winners were selected from 130 entries from 82 schools submitted in the third writing competition of the year.
First Place has been awarded to Claire Bernard, a senior from University of Montana.
Claire wins a $3,000 award for the article “‘Nine hundred seventy-five days.” Claire also qualifies for the National Writing Championship in June 2026.
Second Place, $2,000 award, Lola White, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Third Place, $1,500 award, Tarryn Nichols, University of Florida
Fourth Place, $1,000 award, Neva Drane, University of Georgia
Fifth Place, $1,000 award, Karla Perez, University of Connecticut
The top five winning schools will receive matching grants.
Sixth-through-tenth place finalists:
Sixth Place, certificate, Lauren Brensel, University of Florida
Seventh Place, certificate, Riley Fox, University of Oregon
Eighth Place, certificate, Sana Mahmud, University of Southern California
Ninth Place, certificate, Alexandra Wenskoski, Pennsylvania State University
Tenth Place, certificate, Maddy Wells, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
University of Florida currently leads the Intercollegiate Writing Competition, having earned the highest total
student points across three writing competitions held so far.
They are followed by:
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Pennsylvania State University
Syracuse University
University of Colorado
University of Oregon
University of Missouri
Kent State University
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
University of Southern California
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, 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.
