IU journalists sweep Keating competition, take top student prize
IU students swept the 29th annual Keating Feature Writing Competition and Excellence in Journalism Awards Friday and Saturday, taking first, second and third places as well as the top prize to an individual student journalist.
Junior Grace Palmieri won first, senior Anicka Slachta was second and senior Annie Garau placed third in the on-the-spot feature writing contest. Senior Samantha Schmidt won the Excellence in Student Journalism Award.
The competition is sponsored by the Indianapolis Press Club Foundation. It is named in honor of the late Thomas R. Keating, a feature columnist at the Indianapolis Star and communications pro at Eli Lilly & Co.
Since its inception in 1986, the foundation has awarded more than $130,000 to Indiana college journalists. Palmieri won $3,000 for her story about a teenager working two jobs, while Slachta won $1,750 and Garau won $1,250.
Twenty-two student journalists from Indiana colleges entered the competition by submitting three examples of their work. The foundation chose 10 finalists, nine of whom gathered in Indianapolis Friday evening to meet with experienced journalists who critiqued the three stories. (One of the 10 finalists was unable to attend.) Other IU contestants were Hannah Fleace, Alison Graham and Mary Katherine Wildeman.
Saturday morning, they were assigned a feature project to produce in five hours. This year, the assignment was to write a story connected to the Circle Center mall’s 20th anniversary.
After reporting their stories, finalists went the offices of the Indianapolis Star, now located in the mall, to write and polish their work. Saturday evening, they heard the results of the contest and about Schmidt’s award, and heard keynote speaker Michael Sanserino, BAJ’09, now sports editor of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. As an IU undergrad, Sanserino won the Keating twice.
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