2005 – 2006 Writing Winners
Of the 491 writing entries received in the 05-06 competitions, 8 students’ articles qualified them for the Hearst National Writing Championship in San Francisco, where they competed for additional awards. This special event consisted of an on-the-spot assignment and a press interview of a newsworthy individual. The finalists’ stories were judged for accuracy, writing quality, enterprise and innovation.
On Wednesday, June 7th, a few hours after arriving in the city, the finalists met with the judges for introductions, orientation, and to receive their assignments. The on-the-spot assignment was to write about a local immigration issue and to link that case study to the broader themes in the national immigration debate. The identity of the interview subject was revealed to the finalists a week ahead of time, allowing for some additional research opportunities. On Friday morning, the finalists met with Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown for their interview. The finalists had until Friday at 5:00 p.m. to turn in a news story from the interview, a feature article and/or personality/profile of the Mayor and the spot news piece on immigration.
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: Teddy Kider from Northwestern University, Corey W. Paul from Western Kentucky University, Robert R. Samuels from Northwestern University, Emily Steel from University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and Brian Triplett from University of Iowa. Two additional awards of $1,000 each were given to Teddy Kider for Article of the Year and Corey W. Paul for Best Reporting Technique for their articles submitted in the monthly competitions.
