As the Spring 2026 semester wrapped up, the UConn Journalism Department handed out thousands of dollars of scholarships and honored 20 of our journalism majors at our annual Scholarship Awards Ceremony last week.  The students were honored for their achievements both inside and outside of the classroom.

An impressive alumna of our program, Jackie Wattles, who covers space and science for CNN, returned to Storrs to be our keynote speaker.  She also spoke to Prof. Kate Farrish’s two Newswriting classes. She told the students that UConn is where she fell in love with the journalism process, including the discipline of verifying all facts and setting aside your biases. “Studying journalism is a way to train your brain,” Wattles, who is just back from covering the Artemis II mission to the dark side of the moon, said. “It’s craft, and it’s a profession.”