Cronkite Student Wins Reporting Prize

Deanna Dent, a senior in the Cronkite School, is one of nine journalism students from across the country to win the 2008 Roy W. Howard National Collegiate Reporting Competition. Dent and the other winning students will travel to Japan and South Korea for a 13-day journalism study tour in June. They will visit newspapers and television stations as well as major historical sites, such as the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea. The all-expenses paid trip is sponsored by the Scripps Howard Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the E. W. Scripps Co., which owns television networks, newspapers and interactive media businesses. Mike Philipps, president and CEO of the Scripps Howard Foundation, said in a prepared statement that the prize responds to the need for today’s student journalists to better understand international affairs. That need is especially great in Asia, where few American journalism students go. Dent, 23, of Tempe, was chosen based on a portfolio of her work and an essay on her interest in international affairs. She is a senior at ASU, majoring in journalism and fine arts with a specialization in photography. She has interned on the photo staffs of The Arizona Republic, the East Valley Tribune and the Bend (Ore.) Bulletin. She is currently photo editor of The State Press, ASU’s independent daily student newspaper. Last semester she was part of a group of Cronkite students who produced a major multimedia reporting project on families divided by the U.S.-Mexican border. Other winners of the collegiate reporting competition are journalism majors from the University of Texas-Austin, Boston University, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Michigan State University, Colorado State University, University of Minnesota and the University of Southern California. The Roy W. Howard award, established in 1984 in cooperation with the Indiana University School of Journalism, honors the memory of the journalist who led Scripps Howard Newspapers from 1922-1953 and United Press International from 1912-1920.