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2024 UConn Journalism Award Winners and Scholarship Recipients

We celebrated our favorite event of the academic year on April 25, 2024 — UConn Journalism’s annual awards night. Congratulations to our 19 winners, who received a total of $27,000 in scholarships, and to the 39 members of the Class of 2024, who received graduation honor cords at the ceremony.

The featured event speaker was alum Keila Torres Ocasio ’07, who is enterprise editor at The Connecticut Mirror. She encouraged students to lean into their curiosity and ‘nosiness’ as journalists to help them uncover important stories and opportunities in their own careers.

 

Scholarship winners by award:

Donald and Jewell Friedman Award
• Erica Yirenkyi
• Kaily Martinez

Charles Litsky Memorial Scholarship 
• Erika Avellino
• Mikayla Bunnell
• Sophia Makin
• Sara Bedigian
• Daniel Stark
• Amanda Ameral
• Gianni Salisbury
• Hannah Parr
• Desirae Sin
• Molly Moriarty

Sheehan Family Journalism Scholarship
• Anna Heqimi

John Breen Scholarship
• Delan Li

Dave Solomon Scholarship
• Matt Corpuz
• Jalen Allen
• Alicia Monge

Terese Aronoff Karmel Award for Sports Journalism
• Amaree Love

Michael J. Whalen Journalism Award
• Delan Li

Barbara K. Hill Award
• Amanda McCard

Special guests at the April 25 event included emeritus professors Maureen Croteau, Wayne Worcester and Marcel Dufresne, and John Hill, the son of the late Barbara Hill, whose memorial scholarship supports the junior UConn journalism major with the highest GPA.

UConn Journalism collaboration with The Day wins recognition from NENPA

"Spirit of the City" is a 2020 project reported by UConn Journalism students and faculty and published by The Day.

Congratulations to Profs. Gail B. MacDonald and Maureen Croteau, The Day newsroom and the team of UConn Journalism students who worked on “Spirit of the City,” a series of stories about New London's diverse faith communities and the extensive outreach and social justice work they perform.

"Spirit of the City" was awarded first place in "Excellence in Newsroom Collaboration and Partnerships" at the 2022 New England Newspaper & Press Association awards.

The judges noted that the successful collaboration between the Southeastern Connecticut news outlet and UConn Journalism gave students the opportunity to work with professional journalists and have their work published. The added resources and relationships built made this a winning partnership, the judges wrote.

The students (now alumni) who worked on the project were: Kevin Arnold, Olivia Hickey, Daniela Luna, Allison O'Donnell, Maxine Philavong and Joseph Villanova.

Professional headshot photo sessions for UConn Journalism seniors

Need a professional headshot photo? Sign up to get one taken on Wednesday, April 20 or 27 in OAK460.