2019 Writing Championship
From the 631 writing entries received in the 2018-2019 writing competitions, the following finalists’ competition articles qualified them for the Hearst National Writing
Championship in San Francisco, where they competed for additional scholarship awards. This special event consisted of an on-the-spot assignment and a press interview.
On Sunday, June 2nd, shortly after arriving in San Francisco, the finalists met with the judges for orientation and assignments. This year, the on-the-spot assignment was a news story that explored an unintended consequence of California’s housing shortage.
The finalists’ press interview took place with investor and venture capitalist John Doerr. The final deadline was Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. by which point a news story from
the interview, a personality/profile of Mr. Doerr and the spot news piece were due. After reviewing the articles Wednesday 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 $10,000, $7,500, and $5,000 respectively. The five finalists earned $1,500 scholarship awards.
Two finalists were awarded additional $1,000 awards for Article of the Year and Best Reporting Technique for pieces submitted in the monthly competitions.
The winners and finalists are featured below.
