San Francisco – Winners have been announced in the Photojournalism News and Features Competition of the 2024-2025 Hearst Journalism Awards Program. The winners were selected from 124 entries from 72 schools submitted in the first photo competition of the year.
First Place has been awarded to Emilee Arnold, a senior from Western Kentucky University. Emilee wins a $3,000 scholarship and qualifies for the National Photojournalism Championship in June 2025.
Second Place, $2,000 award: Abbey Cutrer, University of Kentucky
Third Place, $1,500 award: Dominic Di Palermo, Western Kentucky University
Fourth Place, $1,000 award: Cara Penquite, University of Missouri
Fifth Place, $1,000 award: Chad Cushing, University of Kansas
The top five winning schools will receive matching grants.
Sixth through Tenth Place Finalists:
Sixth Place, certificate: Coral Scoles-Coburn, University of Montana
Seventh Place, certificate: Heather Diehl, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Eighth Place, certificate: Ben Pennington, Ohio University
Ninth Place, certificate: Ashleigh Lucas, University of Florida
Tenth Place, certificate: Matthew Mueller, University of Kentucky
Eleventh through Twentieth Place Finalists:
11th: Mason Kumet, University of Arizona
12th (tie): Maddie McCuddy, University of Montana
12th (tie): Arthur Maiorella, Syracuse University
14th (tie): Ayiana Andrella, Ohio University
14th (tie): Avery Bane, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
16th (tie): Kate Cassady, University of Missouri
16th (tie): Garrett Mogel, Colorado State University
16th (tie): Max Unkrich, University of Oregon
19th (tie): Erin Martin, Elon University
19th (tie): Jacob Rice, Iowa State University
Western Kentucky University takes the lead in the Intercollegiate Photojournalism Competition with the highest accumulated student points in the first of two photo competitions.
They are followed by:
University of Kentucky
University of Missouri
University of Montana
Ohio University
University of Kansas
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
University of Florida
University of Arizona
Syracuse University
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: Nicole Frugé, Director of Visuals, The San Francisco Chronicle; Danny Gawlowski, Senior Manager, Communications and Policy, Carbon to Sea; and Elodie Mailliet Storm, CEO, CatchLight.
The 65th annual Hearst Journalism Awards Program offers 14 competitions annually including four writing, two photo, one audio, two television, four multimedia and one podcast awarding up to $700,000 in scholarships, matching grants and stipends. Currently, there are 105 universities of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication with accredited undergraduate journalism programs are eligible to participate in the Hearst competitions.
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