WKU Student Jeff Giraldo Wins Hearst Photojournalism Shoot-Out
SAN FRANCISCO, CA (June 10, 2008) – Student photojournalist Jeff Giraldo of Western Kentucky University is this year's top winner in the William Randolph Hearst National Photojournalism Championship held annually in San Francisco, CA.
Six finalist student photojournalists were flown to San Francisco during the first week of June to compete against each other in on-the-spot assignments and picture stories. After two days of shooting and editing, judges picked Giraldo as the winner from the six. The first place winner in the Hearst Journalism Awards Program receives a $5,000 prize.
Michael Paulsen of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln finished second with a $4,000 award, and Justin Maxon of San Francisco State University finished third with a $3,000 prize.
There were three runners-up in the finalists and they'll each receive a $1,500 award. They were Ikuru Kuwajima from the University of Missouri; Jessica Pons from San Francisco State University; and John Tully from the University of Missouri.
The Hearst Journalism Awards Program for college students has been funded and administered by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation for 48 years, awarding students up to $500,000 each year in scholarships, grants, and stipends.
The $1,000 award for Best Single Photograph went to Maxon, and the Best Picture Story/Series award of $1,000 went to Pons.
Giraldo is a December 2007 graduate of Western Kentucky University.
Only the six finalists were brought to San Francisco for the shoot-out for first place, but a group of semi-finalist photojournalism students will each receive a $1,000 prize. They are John Adkisson of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Philip Andrews of Western Kentucky University; Aaron Borton of Western Kentucky University; Robert Leistra of Ball State University; Tim Hussin of the University of Florida; and Michael Mullady of San Francisco State University.
In the Hearst National Television Broadcast News Championship, the first place winner of a $5,000 award was Jason Lamb of the University of Missouri. Second place was Adam Miller of Northwestern University, receiving a $4,000 award, and third place was Maika D. Bauerle of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, receiving a $3,000 prize.
Semi-finalists in the Hearst National Television Broadcast News Championship each receive a $1,000 prize. The semi-finalists this year were Brittany Jones-Cooper of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Michelle Ashworth of Arizona State University; Thomas Hendrick of the University of Colorado; Elexander Michaelson of the University of South Carolina; and Jennifer Carpenter of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The students received their awards during a dinner in San Francisco at the Exploratorium Museum of Science, Art, and Human Perception and the keynote speaker was William Randolph Hearst III, president of the William Randolph Hearst Foundation and chairman of the foundation's board.
This year the photojournalism judges were Janet Reeves of The Rocky Mountain News in Denver; Mary Shanahan of Town & Country magazine in New York; and Pim Van Hemmen of The Star-Ledger in Newark, NJ. The television news judges were Barbara Cochran, president of Radio-Television News Directors Association; Michael Luckoff, president and general manager of KGO-AM Radio Inc. in San Francisco; and Fred Young, senior vice president of news for Hearst-Argyle Television in New York.
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