San Francisco – Winners have been announced in the Multimedia One/Features Competition of the 2015-2016 Hearst Journalism Awards Program. There were 73 entries from 42 schools nationwide in the first of four multimedia competitions

First Place has been awarded to Emily Rhyne, a senior from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Emily will receive a $2,600 scholarship for her winning multimedia piece titled “Pistola” from latimes.com. She also qualifies for the National Multimedia Championship this June in San Francisco. University of North Carolina will receive a matching grant, as do the journalism departments of all scholarship winners. ,

The other top finalists are:
Second Place, $2,000 award, Alexa Lewis, Pennsylvania State University
Third Place, $1,500 award, Cat Cardenas, University of Texas at Austin
Fourth Place, $1,000 award, Shelbi Whitehead, University of Nevada, Reno
Fifth Place, $1,000 award, Jack Tumen, Pennsylvania State University
The top five winning schools receive matching grants.

The sixth through tenth place finalists are:
Sixth Place, certificate, Kaci Felstet, University of Montana
Seventh Place, certificate, Daniel Vorlet, Western Kentucky University
Eighth Place, certificate, Tyler Cleveland, University of North Texas
Ninth Place, certificate, Timothy Tai, University of Missouri
Tenth Place, certificate, Luke Rafferty, Syracuse University

Pennsylvania State University placed first in the Intercollegiate Multimedia Competition with the highest accumulated student points from the first of four multimedia competitions. It is followed by: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; University of Nevada, Reno; University of Texas at Austin; Western Kentucky University; University of Montana; University of North Texas; San Diego State University; University of Missouri; University of Nebraska. The final Intercollegiate winners are announced in April. The top three intercollegiate winners earn $10,000, $4,000 and $2,000 respectively.

The Multimedia judges are: Tiffany Campbell, Executive Editor, Digital, WBUR 90.9, Arlington, VA; Kenny Irby, Independent Visual Consultant, St. Petersburg, FL; Kate O’Brian, President, Al Jazeera America, New York, NY.

The Journalism Awards Program, now in its 56th year, added multimedia to the competitions in 2010. The program also includes five writing, one radio, two television, and two photojournalism competitions offering up to $500,000 in scholarships, matching grants and stipends. 108 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.

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