Castonzo, Schmidt receive honors in inaugural News-Decoder contest
Junior Danielle Castonzo won first prize in News-Decoder’s inaugural reporting contest, and senior Samantha Schmidt was one of three runners-up.
Castonzo and Schmidt both received honors in the university category of the contest, which awarded Castonzo $500 for her story, “Hiroshima Buildings Preserve A-Bomb Legacy,” on Hiroshima’s efforts to conserve architectural remains after the atomic bomb explosion in 1945.
In her contest entry, “Wanting to Leave but Nowehere to Go,” Schmidt reported first-hand accounts of the refugee crisis in the Middle East and Europe after visiting the Zaatari Refugee Camp in Jordan in December 2015.
News-Decoder is a website and forum for global news that seeks to foster global understanding by helping young people around the world “decode” and understand international news.
IU is one of News-Decoder’s 11 pilot institutions, and Media School professor of practice Elaine Monaghan and doctoral student Rashad Mammadov are correspondents.
Anyone may submit articles, photos, video or audio to News-Decoder. For more information on being an ambassador, contact Monaghan.
More:
- Visit the News-Decoder website.
- View the press release announcing winners of News-Decoder’s inaugural reporting contest.
- Read Castonzo’s and Schmidt’s award-winning articles on News-Decoder.