Newspaper, Online and Magazine Awards and Recognition:

Kansan reporters placed first in the William Randolph Hearst national writing competition for the second consecutive year. They earned a $10,000 award for the School by placing in the top 20 in each of the six contests. The individuals who placed were: For opinion writing: Travis Robinett, 3rd; Elizabeth McLeod,6th. For sports writing: Thor Nystrom, 3rd; Brian Lewis-Jones, 7th. For in-depth writing: Matt Lindberg, 7th; Courtney Condron, 19th. For spot news: Jonathan Kealing, 8th; Nathan Gill, 10th. For personality profile: Sarah Neff, 14th. For feature writing: Jack Weinstein, 16th.

Stephen Peteritas placed 20th in the first Hearst College Multimedia Competition. There were 69 entrants from 39 undergraduate programs.

Kansan.com won an Online Pacemaker Award in fall 2007, and is one of 9 finalists for the award in fall 2008. 

The Kansan is one of 9 finalists for the daily Newspaper Pacemaker to be awarded in fall 2008. 

Dow Jones Newspaper Fund Editing Internships were awarded to: Tara Smith at the Naples, Florida, Daily News; Kelsey Hayes at the Indianapolis Star; Matt Erickson at the Kansas City Star.

Additional Newspaper Editing Internships for summer 2008: Luke Morris at the Philadelphia Inquirer; Dianne Smith at the Dallas Morning News.

A newspaper series on area water quality, prepared by Prof. Rick Musser’s summer Environmental Reporting class for the Lawrence Journal-World received the Suburban Newspapers of America award for best environmental coverage. 

A newspaper series on homeschooling by Shanxi Upsdell and two Journal-World staff members won national awards from national Education Writers Association and the Suburban Newspapers of America.

KU students won 7 first place, 4 second place and 3 3rd place awards in the Society of Professional Journalists regional competition.The first place winners compete at the national level. The newspaper and online first place winners were: Sarah Neff, newspaper feature writing; C. J. Moore, newspaper sports writing; Mark Dent, newspaper; ports column; Christopher Raine, online opinion writing; Justin O’Neal and Lisa Allen, online sports writing; Jessica Reber, Stephen Peteritas, Kelly Cochran and Gretchen Wieland, online in-depth reporting. Second place newspaper and online awards went to: Courtney Condron, in-depth newspaper writing, and Brian Lewis-Jones, newspaper sports writing, and Bradley Mertel, online opinion writing. A third place newspaper award went to: Chris Conetzkey for in-depth reporting.  

Kansas Associated Collegiate Press cited the Kansan as the best daily newspaper among 4-year colleges and Kansan.com as the best online site. It gave individual first place awards to: The Kansan for its special section on basketball; Travis Robinett for a sports column; Mark Dent for a sports feature; Arthur Fusco for sports news. Other awards went to: Dent, a second and 3 honorable mentions for sports news; Fusco, a 3rd for sports news; Thor Nystrom, a 3rd for sports feature; Sasha Roe, honorable mention for news.

News internships for summer 2008: Andrew Greenhaw, Al-Jazeera English, Washington D.C.; Shawn Shroyer, Thor Nystrom, Mark Dent, MLB.com; Alexander Parker, one of 51 citizen journalists for The Street, to cover the presidential election from a youth perspective; Ramsey Cox interned on Congressional Daily in Washington in spring.

News Scholarships from professional organizations: Shanxi Upsdell and Dianne Smith received scholarships from the American Copy Editors Society; Jennifer Torline received 2 scholarships from the Society of Professional Journalists Kansas Chapter

Magazine Awards from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications: Amanda Seller’s placed first in start-up magazine for “Layers.” Third place awards went to Elise Weidner for writing and to Jayplay design.

The American Society of Magazine Editors awarded Christopher Horn a summer internship on Real Simple magazine in New York. 

Broadcast  Awards:

Society of Professional Journalists regional broadcast awards went to: First place for an in-depth report: Sam Knowlton, Stephen Peteritas, Jyl Unruh and Alex Wiebel. Second place for an in-depth report: Tami Drietz, Mary Johnson, and Hayley Travis. Third places: Andrew Sherwood, Kelly Cochran, Sam Knowlton and Jyl Unruh, for an in-depth report, and Joseph Erba, Sarah Hart and Sam Knowlton, for tv feature photography.

Kansas Association of Broadcasters Television awards: First place awards to: Tracy Perlman, producer for a complete newscast; The KUJH-TV Web site: tv.ku.edu; Knowlton, Peteritas, Unruh and Wiebel for an enterprise news package; Honorable mention went to Lisa Allen for a complete news feature.

Kansas Association of Broadcasters Radio Awards: First place awards to: Vince Meserko, news enterprise; Rachel Gray and Elise Stawarz, event promotion. Denzyl Janneker, graduate student documentary. Honorable mention went to Zachary White, for an entertainment program.

Strategic Communication Awards and Recognition

The Kansan Advertising staff was chosen the best in the nation, for the second consecutive year by the College Newspaper Business and Advertising Managers association. Individual top awards went to: Jackie Schaffer, business manager of the year; Laura Vest, sales representative of the year; Ari Ben, student sales manager of the year.

Other Kansan first place advertising awards were for: Special section, 2 for electronic banner ads, and best Back to School edition. Third place awards were for display ad and group promotion.

A Bronze Addy award from the Ad Club of Kansas City went to a Chipotle ad by the Campaigns class of Mugur Geana. 

The Advertising Club of Kansas City awarded scholarships to Toni Bergquist, Sonya English, Helen Pavlik, Angela Palacioz, Carlos Perez Beltran, and Rachel Schulties. 

Other Recognition of Jjournalism Students:        

A paper by 6 graduate students, Uyanga Bazaa, Christopher Brott, Denzyl Janneker, Soleak Seang, Jess Skinner, and Abigail Stutzer, was presented at the May conference of the International Communication Association in Montreal. The topic was the changing media images and issues in the portrayal of Jesse Jackson and Barack Obama as presidential candidates.

A film, “The Kickapoo Experience,” made by Rhonda LeValdo, a graduate student, was shown at the American Indian Film Festival. She also is a member of the board of the Native American Journalists Association.

Carnez Williams was chosen for the Council on Legal Education Opportunity’s Sophomore Summer Institute, a non-profit project of the American Bar Association.

Kim Wallace received the Chips Quinn Prize for journalistic excellence from Gannett for her reporting as an intern at the TimesDaily in Florence, Alabama in summer 2007.

University Honors and Leadership

Karen Blakeman received a summer research fellowship from the Graduate School to support her work on blogging and newspaper readership. She also received an outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant award.

Sarah Neff was chosen as a McNair Scholar to pursue graduate study in preparation for a  college teaching career.

Brenna Daldorph was the first Hall Center for the Humanities Scholar. She meets with authors and scholars who come to KU to speak at the center.

Rachel Burchfield is president of the senior class of 2009 and president of the Board of Class Officers that gives awards to including the H.O.P.E .to faculty, and awards to students and staff.

Jasmine Walthall was president of the Association of University Residence Halls for 2007-2008.  Five journalism students were resident assistants during the year.

Erin Gregory, Kelly Heavy and Adam Hurly were site coordinators for Alternative Winter Breaks. A total of 49 students volunteered at 6 agencies around the country. 

Alyson Rodee was one of 3 Student Alumni Association leaders who received its Ruedlinger Award.

Sarah Beals is one of 19 College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Dean’s Scholars.

Katherine Blankenau is one of 16 freshmen who are Chancellor’s Club Scholars. 

Aleese Kopf, Amanda Hammersmith. April Bell and Hannah Feldman completed the KU Freshman Leadership Council training.

Joanne Zhou and Clarice Amorin are among 20 students chosen as peer advisers for summer orientations.

Five of the 22 New Student Orientation assistants for summer 2008 are journalism students.