San Francisco – Winners have been announced in the Photojournalism News & Features Competition of the 2025-2026 Hearst Journalism Awards Program. The winners were selected from 134 entries from 72 schools
submitted in the first photo competition of the year.
First Place has been awarded to Maddie McCuddy, a December graduate from University of Montana. Maddie wins a $3,000 scholarship and qualifies for the National Photojournalism Championship in June 2026.
Second Place, $2,000 award, Nia Meyers, Pennsylvania State University
Third Place, $1,500 award, Blake Fagan, California State University, Northridge
Fourth Place, $1,000 award, Ben Pennington, Ohio University
Fifth Place, $1,000 award, Alex Antoniono, Pennsylvania State University
The top five winning schools will receive matching grants.
Sixth-through-tenth place finalists:
Sixth Place, certificate, Ari Saperstein, Michigan State University
Seventh Place, certificate, Dominic Di Palermo, Western Kentucky University
Eighth Place, certificate, Marley Barboeisel, University of Montana
Ninth Place, certificate, Charlotte Keene, University of Texas at Austin
Tenth Place, certificate, Michael Baniewicz, University of Missouri
The University of Montana and Pennsylvania State University share first place in the Intercollegiate Photojournalism Competition, holding the highest combined student points after the first of two photo
competitions held annually.
They are followed by:
Western Kentucky University
California State University, Northridge
University of Missouri
Michigan State University (tie)
Ohio University (tie)
University of Texas at Austin
University of Florida (tie)
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (tie)
The final Intercollegiate winners will be announced after the Photo II competition in April.
The top three intercollegiate winners earn $10,000, $5,000 and $2,500 respectively, which will be presented
during the National Championships in June.
The photojournalism judges are: Danny Gawlowski, Senior Manager, Communications and Policy, Carbon to Sea; and Elodie Mailliet Storm, CEO, CatchLight; Boyzell Hosey, Senior Editor for Visual Storytelling, ProPublica.
The Hearst Journalism Awards Program introduced photojournalism to its competitions in 1970. Now in its 66th year, the program includes four writing competitions, two photojournalism competitions, one audio, two
television, one podcast, and four multimedia competitions. Together, they offer up to $700,000 in scholarships, matching grants, and stipends. Currently, 104 universities with accredited undergraduate journalism programs—members of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication—are eligible to participate in the Hearst competitions.
