Hoopfer takes second, IU remains first after latest Hearst competition
Junior Evan Hoopfer won second place in sports writing in the 55th annual William Randolph Hearst Foundation’s Journalism Awards Program’s writing contest, and IU remains in first place after this third round of monthly competitions.
Hoopfer won a $2,000 scholarship for his story, “Sold, not told. Scalping tickets for IU football has never been easy,” published in the Indiana Daily Student in December. Senior Michael Majchrowicz earned sixth place.
The Hearst writing competition winners are selected based on submissions of students’ previously published work in several categories. Sports writing is the third of five; it drew a record 122 entries from 66 schools. The remaining writing categories are personality/profile and breaking news.
Earlier in the series, alumna Jessica Contrera, BAJ’14, won fourth place in the feature writing contest, and junior Samantha Schmidt won first place and junior Megan Jula won eighth in the enterprise reporting category.
In addition to the writing competition, the program includes two photojournalism competitions, three broadcast news competitions and four multimedia competitions.
First place winners automatically qualify to compete in the national competitions in June, and others are selected based on points they receive for each entry. Hoopfer qualifies for the finals because the winner of the sports writing competition already has graduated. All student points contribute to their schools’ rankings.
In the first photojournalism competition in January, Mark Felix, BAJ’14, won eighth place and Caitlin O’Hara, BAJ’14, placed 22nd. IU is fifth in the photojournalism division.
The program awards up to $500,000 in scholarships and grants annually, including student scholarships and matching grants for schools.
IU students have found success in what some call the Pulitzer Prizes of college journalism. IU’s Charlie Scudder won the national prize in 2013 and Danielle Paquette won in 2011. Several others have competed at the nationals, with three placing second or third. In overall points, IU has won or finished second in the writing program finals several times in the last five years.
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.