News
Seven J-Schoolers win National Awards for Education Reporting
April 15, 2010 00:00
April 15, 2010
Six Columbia Journalism School alumni and one current Spencer Fellow are winners of the 2009 National Awards for Education Reporting — administered by the Education Writers Association (EWA) — for the best education reporting in the print and broadcast media.
"I'm personally gratified to see so many J-School graduates recognized for their wonderful reporting on education," said Prof. LynNell Hancock, director of the Spencer Fellowship in Education Reporting who also teaches the Covering Education seminar to M.S. students here. "It's a beat we care about at the school; nearly every student is exposed to it in one form another before graduation. And when such a healthy collection of alums walks off with an award from EWA, it means a lot."
This year's EWA award recipients are:
- Sarah Carr '02, who will soon return to the Journalism School as a 2010-11 Spencer Fellow, won second prize in the large media/series category for "The Challenge of Choice" in The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune. Kathleen McGrory '06 tied Carr for second place with "School on the Brink," which appeared in the Miami Herald.
- Sharona Coutts '08 is a member of the Marketplace/ProPublica team, which won a special citation in the radio/podcast category for "Allegations of Enrollment Abuses at University of Phoenix."
- Current Spencer Fellow Elizabeth Green and Maura Walz '09, along with other contributors, won first prize in the blogs category for GothamSchools.org.
- Kate N. Grossman '97 took second prize in the large media/opinion category for her Chicago Sun-Times piece "A Powerful Voice for Better Schools."
- Beth Slovic '04 received a special citation in the small media/feature category for "Cheerless," which appeared in Oregon's Willamette Week.
Contest entries were limited to stories published or broadcast for the first time during the 2009 school calendar year. A total of 334 entries were judged in this year's contest. Prizes, including the announcement of the grand prize, will be given at the awards luncheon Saturday, May 15 during the Education Writers Association's 63rd National Seminar in San Francisco, Calif.