Woods, Jula, IU honored in Hearst writing competition
Two students won fourth and fifth places and IU held onto first place in the latest monthly contest of the Hearst Journalism Awards Program’s Intercollegiate Writing Competition.
Seniors Alden Woods and Megan Jula won $1,000 scholarships, Woods for his fourth place article and Jula for hers that took fifth place in the enterprise reporting category, the program announced this week.
Woods’ winning story is “The Unsettled,” about Syrian refugees in Indiana. Jula won her scholarship for an article, “Waiting for Help,” which looked at the resources of the Counseling and Psychological Services at the IU Health Center and the number of students it serves. Theirs were two of 114 enterprise entries from 64 different schools.
The program conducts five monthly writing competitions as well as two photojournalism, one radio, two TV and four multimedia, with championship finals in all divisions.
Students submit their previously published work for the contests. They earn points for their schools, which accumulate to name an overall winner each summer during the finals. In December, sophomore Taylor Telford won first place in the feature writing category of the competition.
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 the competition in recent years. Last June, five IU students competed in the 2015 national finals. Senior 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.
In 2013, Charles Scudder, BAJ’14, won the national writing competition, and, in 2011, Danielle Paquette, BAJ’11, won first and Caitlin Johnston, BAJ’11, took second place. Several students have competed as finalists in the national championships over the last seven years, and IU has won first place overall in the writing championships four of the last six 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.
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