Rising senior Taylor Telford won first place in the Hearst Journalism Awards Program, a prestigious national writing championship in San Francisco.
Telford, an IDS reporter, wrote a story about undocumented farm workers in northern California to win this year’s award, the program announced June 1.
Spring 2017 graduate and former IDS Editor-in-Chief Hannah Alani and rising senior and former IDS Managing Editor Jordan Guskey were also finalists and competed in the championship. Alani placed third.
The Hearst Awards Program recognizes student journalists across the country in a variety of categories including breaking news, profile, enterprise and sports. The winners of each category accumulate a number of points which allows them to be finalists and compete in the championship in San Francisco every summer.
Telford won Enterprise Story of the Year for “A question of consent,” a story about an accusation of sexual assault on IU’s campus, which was published in the IDS during the spring semester.
Telford also placed fourth in the profile/personality category.
Alani won the breaking news category with her story, “Daniel Messel receives 80 years for murder of Hannah Wilson,” which was published in the IDS in September 2016. The story detailed the sentencing of Messel, who was found guilty of murdering IU student Wilson in spring 2015.
Guskey won the sports category for his story, “Handling of Nick Carovillano’s injury at the basis of Kevin Wilson’s eventual resignation,” which was published in the IDS in December 2016. The story detailed the player’s injuries and the mistreatment he endured under Wilson’s tenure as head football coach.
This is the fourth year in a row and the sixth time in eight years an IU student has won the national writing championship.
Alison Graham
