San Francisco – Winners have been announced in the Sports Writing Competition of the 2023-2024 Hearst Journalism Awards Program.
There were 128 entries from 70 schools submitted in the third writing competition of the academic year.
First Place has been awarded to CJ Younger from Drake University. CJ will receive a $3,000 scholarship for the winning article “For the Dogs” published in Urban-plains.com.
CJ graduated in May 2023, and per program guidelines is not eligible to participate in the Hearst National Writing Championship. Second-place winner Elliott Deins, a senior from the University of Oregon qualifies for the Championship. Elliott will receive a $2,000 award for the winning article “I Have To See How The Story Ends – Megan Smith’s dream went unfulfilled once. She’s determined not to let it happen again.”
The other top finalists are:
Third place, $1,500 award, Elizabeth Reardon, Syracuse University
Fourth Place, $1,000 award, Alfred Smith III, Arizona State University
Fifth Place, $1,000 award, Ross O’Keefe, University of Maryland
The top five winning schools receive matching grants.
The sixth-through-tenth place finalists are:
Sixth Place, certificate, Noah Keur, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Seventh Place, certificate, Marissa Meador, Indiana University
Eighth Place, certificate, Jack Davies, San Francisco State University
Ninth Place, certificate, Jackson Payne, Brigham Young University
Tenth place, certificate, Kaitlyn Schmidt, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is in first place in the Intercollegiate Writing Competition with the
highest accumulated student points from the first three writing competitions of the year. They are followed by: Drake University; University of Florida; Arizona State University; Indiana University; University of Oregon; University of Tennessee at Chattanooga; San Francisco State University; University of Maryland; Oklahoma State University.
The top three intercollegiate winners earn $10,000, $4,000 and $2,000 respectively. The final intercollegiate
winners will be announced after the completion of all five writing competitions in May and will be presented at the National Championships in June.
The writing judges are: Maria Reeve, Managing Editor/Vice President, The Star Tribune; Sue Campbell, Managing Editor, Features, The Star Tribune; David Callaway, Founder and Editor, Callaway Climate Insights.
The Journalism Awards Program, now in its 64th year, also includes two photojournalism, one audio, two
television, and four multimedia competitions. The program offers up to $700,000 in scholarships, matching grants and stipends. 105 member universities of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication with accredited undergraduate journalism programs are eligible to participate in the Hearst competitions.
