Drake University SJMC Writing Program Places Fifth with Hearst, Nation’s Most Prestigious Collegiate Journalism Awards

Wednesday, August 21st, 2024

Drake University placed fifth in the prestigious Hearst Intercollegiate Writing competition, a part of the Hearst Journalism Awards Program which recognizes exceptional student journalistic writing, photojournalism, audio storytelling, television, and multimedia journalism. The competition is open to 105 ACEJMC-accredited journalism schools across the country. Drake University is the smallest school and one of only two private universities to place in any of Hearst’s five intercollegiate competitions.

There were 606 stories entered into the five Hearst writing competition categories, which include feature writing, sports journalism, explanatory reporting, investigative reporting, and personality/profile writing. Drake secured its fifth position based on the strength of four stories across three categories.

2023 graduate CJ Younger placed first with a $3000 scholarship in the Sports category for the winning article “For the Dogs,” which chronicled the declining sled dog community in northern Minnesota, published in urban-plains.com.

• Junior Lincoln Roch placed second in the Features category, winning a $2000 award for “When the Cameras Leave,” a recount of the recovery of his Colorado neighborhood after succumbing to a wildfire, published in Drake Mag.

• Younger also placed third in Features for a $1500 award with “We Can Bring Back the Stars,” a look at the Dark Skies Initiative, published in urban-plains.com.

• 2023 graduate Julia Jennings placed sixteenth in the Explanatory category for “The Forgotten Law,” her historical piece on Kansas’s women’s prisons, in urban-plains.com.

Roch’s story qualified him to participate in the Hearst National Writing Championship, where students competed for additional scholarship awards in San Francisco this June 2024. On Sunday, June 2, the finalists met with the judges for orientation and assignments. Finalists were asked to write two articles: a news story from an interview with former secretary of Defense Mr. Leon Panetta, and an article about the following topic: “How are local companies developing new technologies that are changing how we live and work in this ever-evolving region of San Francisco and Silicon Valley.”

The judges received the finalists’ articles Wednesday evening, and winners announced at the awards ceremony on Thursday.

Roch was among five finalists earning $1,500 scholarships.