SJMC Students Take Home Multiple 2025 Collegiate Student Awards

On Mar. 5, 2026, The Wisconsin Newspaper Association Foundation (WNAF) announced its 2025 collegiate student contest winners, with The Daily Cardinal and The Badger Herald taking home multiple first place awards. The 2025 WNAF Collegiate Better Newspaper Contest featured 331 entries from 12 campus newspapers. Of the most distinguished awards, SJMC’s Annika Bereny was named the 2025 Collegiate Journalist of the Year in Division A for her work with The Daily Cardinal. Congratulations to all of our incredible students!

A full list of UW-Madison winners is as follows:

Arts and Entertainment Story (Division A)

First Place: Lydia Picotte – The Daily Cardinal: UW professor’s collaboration with Bad Bunny highlights Puerto Rican history

Honorable Mention: Anja Breiehagen – The Badger Herald: The Madison-grown Onion: How college newspaper evolved into global satirical empire

Breaking News Reporting (Division A)

First Place: Annika Bereny, Ella Hanley – The Daily Cardinal: Madison police conduct ‘bar checks’ Thursday after signaling end to ‘raids’

Third Place: Anna Kristoff – The Badger Herald: Schimel criticizes drop box voting fraud in dorm rooms, Madison official says these drop boxes do not exist

Honorable Mention: Annika Bereny – The Daily Cardinal: UW receives approval to move L&S’s largest majors to new AI-focused school

Business Coverage (Division A)

First Place: Leila Dunfee – The Badger Herald: Wisconsin vape ban aims to reduce addiction, some fear rise in cigarette use

Second Place: Wilder Gervais – The Daily Cardinal: No Contract, No Coffee: State Street Starbucks workers join national strike

Third Place: Haellie Opp – The Daily Cardinal: ‘This isn’t just a bar, this a movement’: First women-centered sports bar in Madison to open

Club/Intramural Sports Story (Division A/B/C)

First Place: Avery Chedha – The Daily Cardinal: Meet Sláinte: UW-Madison dance group connects students with Irish culture

Third Place: Molly Sheehan – The Daily Cardinal: ‘Hooked after the first practice’: Hurling and Gaelic football club intersects sport with community

Collegiate Journalist of the Year (Division A)

First Place: Annika Bereny with The Daily Cardinal

Second Place: Ella Hanley with The Daily Cardinal

Third Place: John Ernst with The Daily Cardinal

Column Writing (Division A)

First Place: Paul O’Gorman – The Daily Cardinal: Why a liberal arts education matters

Second Place: Owen Puckett – The Daily Cardinal: Last call at Paul’s: Buy a book before Madison loses a literary landmark

Third Place: Olivia Ruetten – The Daily Cardinal: College is difficult. Students say dating shouldn’t be

Editorial Writing (Division A)

First Place: Leah Kennedy – The Badger Herald: Epstein, Trump, Ethel Cain: How we’re laughing ourselves into political desensitization

Second Place: Leah Kennedy – The Badger Herald: ICE’s Manitowoc raid exposes Wisconsin’s dependence, disregard for immigrant workers

Third Place: The Daily Cardinal Editorial Board: Cardinal View: Conservatives say they’re silenced at UW

Honorable Mention: Geneva Michlig – The Badger Herald: Students can use “The Great Lock In” without falling into a trend loop

Environmental Coverage (Division A)

First Place: Avery Chedha – The Daily Cardinal: Wisconsin’s new AI data centers spark transparency, environmental concerns

Second Place: Anna Smith – The Badger Herald: ‘I have a mixture of sadness but also hope’: Pesticides harm Wisconsin bee populations, local conservation groups work to protect bees

Third Place: Jake Kilander – The Daily Cardinal: Dane County conservation program connects farmers, UW-Madison researchers

Feature Photography (Division A)

First Place: Maggie Spinney – The Daily Cardinal: Eric Benedict, Instruction Technology User Manager for the Madison Metropolitan School District, at MMSD’s district office on Dayton Street

Second Place: Jake Piper – The Daily Cardinal: Kane Funmaker, a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation, leads the First Nations Cultural Landscape Tour on the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s campus

Freedom of Information Award (Division A)

First Place: John Ernst – The Daily Cardinal: Behind the quiet termination, ‘predatory’ recruitment practices of former UW Chinese Christian group

Second Place: Anna Kristoff – The Badger Herald: Behind the scenes at UW: How staff manages communication on visa terminations

Third Place: Gabriella Hartlaub, Ella Hanley – The Daily Cardinal: ‘Do you dabble in live lobsters?’: Behind UW-Madison’s $36,000 lobster feast

General Excellence (Division A)

First Place: The Daily Cardinal

Third Place: The Badger Herald

Health Coverage (Division A)

First Place: Nathan Buckley – The Badger Herald: ‘It’s really to give hope to patients that don’t have good treatment options today’: UW to be first in US to get new cancer therapy

Second Place: Clara Strecker – The Daily Cardinal: UW students to lose local abortion access

Third Place: Joseph Panzer – The Daily Cardinal: Budget agreement includes funding for virtual mental health services on smaller

Honorable Mention: Joseph Panzer – The Daily Cardinal: ‘We aren’t prepared to deal with them as people’: Faculty share concerns over student well-being at fall meeting

In-Depth Story (Division A)

Second Place: Aiden Mellon – The Badger Herald: UW fails to uphold multiple terms of its agreement with Students for Justice in Palestine

Lifestyle Story (Division A)

Second Place: Jackson Baker – The Daily Cardinal: Prost! beer hall captures the spirit of Germany with best beer, fare in town

Third Place: Jake Piper – The Daily Cardinal: Remembering Paul’s Books

News Photography (Division A)

Second Place: Jacob Duran – The Badger Herald: Anti-ICE Demonstration

Page Design (Division A)

First Place: Finnegan Ricco, Cameron Schneider – The Daily Cardinal: Photo page immigration edition

Second Place: Zoe Kukla – The Daily Cardinal: Special Page Immigration Issue

Third Place: Francesca Pica – The Daily Cardinal: Refugee resettlement page

Honorable Mention: Isabella Barajas, Maya Morvis, Hailey Johnson, Tess Voigt – The Daily Cardinal: Graphics page immigration edition

Public Affairs Reporting (Division A)

First Place: Beth Stacey – The Badger Herald: Small Wisconsin town meeting makes big impact in AI discussion

Second Place: Annika Bereny – The Daily Cardinal: Here’s what UW-Madison will receive from the state budget agreement

Third Place: Vanessa Gavilan – The Daily Cardinal: Madison homeless population in limbo amid ongoing policy, funding decisions

Sports Photography (Division A)

First Place: Jake Piper – The Daily Cardinal: ‘I refuse to f-ing lose’: Badger volleyball reaches seventh Final Four appearance

Second Place: Evan Halpop, Molly Sheehan – The Daily Cardinal: Badgers at the Frozen Four

Third Place: Chloe Wang – The Badger Herald: Football: Badgers knock off No. 21 Fighting Illini in 27-10 victory

Sports Story (Division A)

First Place: Taylor Kaufmann – The Badger Herald: Title IX violations: Planned football facility could leave UW athletic funding, opportunities lopsided

Honorable Mention: Josh Murphy – The Daily Cardinal: From one John to another: John Blackwell steps up for Wisconsin basketball after John Tonje departure

Technology Coverage (Division A)

First Place: Annika Bereny – The Daily Cardinal: Blue books are back: The revival of pen and paper exams

Second Place: John Ernst, Kayla Dembiec – The Daily Cardinal: Wisconsin’s latest data center battleground

Third Place: Zoey Elwood – The Daily Cardinal: Major in AI? UW System launches new programs

Use of Multimedia (Division A)

First Place: Cameron Schneider, John Ernst, Kayla Dembiec, Jake Piper, Gabriella Hartlaub, Avery Chedha, Paige Armstrong – The Daily Cardinal: Data Centers multi-media reporting project (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)

Third Place: Bella Ferak – The Badger Herald: Creepy Campus Crawlies

Honorable Mention: Sonia Bendre, Ted Hyngstrom, Gabriella Hartlaub – The Daily Cardinal: Physical Education program history (1, 2, 3)

Website (Division A)

Second Place: The Daily Cardinal