Alani, IU first in latest Hearst awards
Junior Hannah Alani won first place and senior Katherine Wildeman took third in the latest monthly contest of the Hearst Journalism Awards Program’s Intercollegiate Writing Competition. IU remains in first place overall.
Alani won a $2,600 scholarship and senior Wildeman won a $1,500 scholarship for their achievements in the personality/profile category.
Alani’s winning story is “The Little Sister,” about 18-year-old Haley Wilson’s first semester on the IU campus after her older sister, Hannah Wilson, was murdered last spring during Little 500 weekend.
Wildeman placed third for “The Cleanup Man,” which looked at the work experiences of meth cleaners responsible for clearing out toxic messes and making meth-contaminated houses habitable again.
Both stories were published in the Indiana Daily Student. Theirs were two of 112 profile entries from 63 different schools.
The program conducts five monthly writing competitions as well as two in photojournalism, one in radio, two in TV and four in multimedia, with championship finals in all divisions.
Students submit their previously published work for the contests. Each school amasses points based on their students’ success in the monthly contests. IU currently is in first place in the writing competition.
In previous monthly contests, senior Alden Woods won fourth place in enterprise reporting and 10th place in sports writing; senior Megan Jula won fifth in the enterprise reporting; and junior Grace Palmieri won eighth in the sports writing.
First place winners in the monthly contests, such as Alani, are invited to compete at the nationals in June. Last year, five IU students competed in the 2015 national finals. Samantha Schmidt won the national first place, and IU won first place in the writing competition based on the total points amassed by its students.
The program awards up to $500,000 in scholarships and grants annually, including student scholarships and matching grants for schools.
The Hearst Journalism Awards Program is conducted under the auspices of accredited schools of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication, and is fully funded and administered by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation.
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