2013 – 2014 Writing Winners
From 559 writing entries received in the 2013-2014 writing competitions, eight finalists’ competition articles qualified them for the Hearst National Writing Championship in Washington, DC, where they competed for additional scholarship awards. This special event consisted of an on-the-spot assignment and a press interview. The finalists’ articles were judged for accuracy, writing quality, enterprise and innovation.
On Monday, June 2nd, shortly after arriving in DC, the finalists met with the judges for orientation and assignments. This year, the on-the-spot assignment was to find a compelling human interest tale amid the DC war memorials focusing on the people who visit them. The finalists’ press interview subject was Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut. The final deadline was Wednesday at 6 p.m. by which point a news story from the interview, a personality/profile of Senator Murphy and the spot news piece were due. After reviewing the articles Thursday morning, the judges made their decisions and the winners were announced at the awards ceremony that evening.
The first through third place winners were awarded scholarships of $5,000, $4,000, and $3, 000 respectively and are featured below. The five finalists who earned $1,500 scholarship awards were: Lauren Caruba, Northwestern University, Jessica Contrera, Indiana University, Megan Jula, Indiana University, Michael Majchrowicz, Indiana University, and Katie Mettler, Indiana University. The $1,000 Article of the Year Award went to Anastasia Orso for her story “Yes – and often no – men” published in The Lion’s Roar. The $1,000 Best Reporting Technique Award went to Katie Mettler for her story “Suspended Justice” published in idsnews.com.
