Hearst Spot News Writing Competition Winners

NEWS RELEASE

TOP 20 HEARST SPOT NEWS WRITING FINALISTS NAMED
San Francisco, CA – HALLE STOCKTON, a junior from Pennsylvania State University, has won first place in the Spot News Writing Competition of the William Randolph Hearst Foundation’s 47th annual Hearst Journalism Awards Program. 75 students from 48 universities across the nation participated in this competition.

Halle’s spot news story from The Daily Collegian is titled, “After 7 months, an arrest.” She will receive a $2,000 scholarship and the opportunity to compete in the National Writing Championships in San Francisco this June. The College of Communications at Pennsylvania State University will receive a matching grant, as do the journalism departments of all scholarship winners.

The Hearst Journalism Awards, conducted under the auspices of accredited schools of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication, is fully-funded and administered by the W. R. Hearst Foundation. The program consists of monthly writing contests, photojournalism and broadcast news competitions, with championship finals in all three divisions.

Presently, 107 accredited schools of undergraduate journalism in the are eligible to participate in the program, which awards more than $450,000 in scholarships and grants annually.

The other top finalists in the Spot News Writing Competition, and their awards are:

SAMANTHA NOVICK, Arizona State University, second place, $1,500
JESSICA N. LARCHÉ, Florida A&M University, third place, $1,000
SEAN ROSE, University of Kentucky, fourth place, $750
C.J. MOORE, University of Kansas, fifth place, $600
BEN BLOCK, University of Maryland, sixth place, $500
STEVEN OVERLY, University of Maryland, seventh place, $500
ELIZABETH A. PHILLIPS, University of Missouri, eighth place, $500
JOSH MOYER, Pennsylvania State University, ninth place, $500
LAURA OLSON, Northwestern University, tenth place, $500

Certificates of merit are awarded to students who placed in the top 20:

DANIEL PERSON, University of Montana, eleventh place
EDDIE JACOVINO, Syracuse University, twelfth place
MEGAN HUPP, Marquette University, thirteenth place
DOMINICK E. TAO, University of Florida, fourteenth place
KATIE BRANDENBURG, Western Kentucky University, fifteenth place
CAROLYN CARVER, Arizona State University, sixteenth place
FRED A. DAVIS III, University of Kansas, seventeenth place
VENUS LEE, University of Southern California, eighteenth place
CRISTIAN J. MARINO, Florida International University, nineteenth place-tie
KATIE FRETLAND, University of Missouri, nineteenth place-tie

Judging the writing competition this year are: Pat Andrews, Assistant Managing Editor, The Miami Herald, Pembroke Pines, FL; Stephen Buckley, Managing Editor, The St. Petersburg Times, FL, and Arthur S. Brisbane, Former Senior Vice President, Knight Ridder, Inc., Monte Sereno, CA.

The University of Kansas placed first place in the Intercollegiate Writing Competition with the highest accumulated school points from the six writing competitions. They are followed by: University of Missouri; Arizona State University; Pennsylvania State University; University of Kentucky; Northwestern University; University of Maryland (tie); University of Montana (tie); California State University, Fullerton; and Florida A&M University.

The Spot News Competition is the last competition of this academic year. Monthly writing competitions resume again in October 2007. For examples of winning work, please check the monthly winners section of the website which is updated shortly after each competition.

 

CONTACT:
Jan Watten
jwatten@hearstfdn.org