Cronkite Students Dominate National Magazine Contest

Students in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication dominated a national student magazine contest, winning more awards than students from any other university in the country.

Cronkite students won a total of 13 awards, four of them first places, in the 2007 Student Magazine Contest, sponsored by the Magazine Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. Boston University placed second with nine awards, and Northwestern University came in third with seven awards.

Two Cronkite students – Christopher H. Sheppard, who graduated with a master’s degree this spring, and graduate student Keridwen Cornelius – were the only students nationally to each win two first-place awards.

Cornelius won for a story she did about President Bush’s guest worker program through the eyes of a small business owner and for “A River Less Traveled,” a story about a five-day canoe trip through the canyons of the Green River. In awarding Cornelius first place for the latter story, the judge, Marilyn Holstein, managing editor of Budget Travel magazine, wrote, “This piece is a joy to read. I felt like I was alongside the author during the entire trip.”

Cornelius also won two honorable mentions for other stories.

The Cronkite Zine, the Cronkite School’s online student-produced magazine, placed third in the online magazine category. It was designed by senior Lorelei Cretu. The zine is produced by students in a class taught by Assistant Professor Carol Schwalbe, who also teaches a magazine class for graduate students who produced many of the winning contest entries.

Entries for the contest, which was judged by professionals in the magazine field, totaled nearly 300 from schools across the country. Cronkite students won six national awards in the contest last year.

AEJMC is the nation’s leading journalism education organization. It is made up of about 3,500 journalism and mass communication faculty, administrators, students and media professionals from around the world.

The complete list of Cronkite winners follows:

Consumer Magazine Article: Places
First: “The River Less Traveled” by Keridwen Cornelius
Honorable Mention: “Abbey Road” by Keridwen Cornelius

Consumer Magazine Article: People
First: “Baghdad or Bust: A Hollywood Bombshell Invades Iraq” by Christopher H. Sheppard
Third: “A Big Ball of Hope” by Kyle Odegard

Consumer Magazine Article: First Person
First: “The Fallujah Peninsula: The Battle Before the War” by Christopher H. Sheppard
Third: “Culture Shocked, Culture Surprised” by Debjani Chakravarty
Honorable Mention: “Taming Wildflowers” by Keridwen Cornelius

Specialized Business Press Article
First: “Seeds of Change, Seeds of Doubt” by Keridwen Cornelius
Second: “Center Studies Commercial Potential of Desert Crops” by Dennis Mitchell
Third: “All in the Family” by Ashley McCausland Biggers
Honorable Mention: “Tasting Arizona” by Stephanie Berger

Online Magazine
Third: Cronkite Zine, http://cronkitezine.asu.edu, Arizona State University, Lorelei Cretu, designer

Start-up Magazine Project: Individual
Second: InDi: A Magazine for the Indian Diaspora by Kanupriya Vashist