SJMC Students Win 2022 SPJ Mark of Excellence Awards

On April 3, the Society for Professional Journalists Region 6 announced its winners for the 2022 Mark of Excellence Awards and six awards were given to J-School students. This award recognizes excellence in collegiate journalism across several categories including print, art/graphics/multimedia, radio, television broadcast. SPJ’s Region 6 is comprised of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin and winners in each category will go on to compete at the national level among other winners from SPJ’s 12 regions.

Curb Magazine won Best Affiliated Website for their 2022 issue, Pulse. Curb copy writer and J-School senior Allyson Fergot was also recognized as a finalist in the Feature Writing category for her piece, “Prairie Protectors.”

Several works produced by staff members of The Daily Cardinal were recognized as well. “Live updates: Citizens gather at Wisconsin Capitol to protest draft opinion repealing Roe v. Wade,” produced by The Daily Cardinal staff won Best Breaking News Reporting among large schools (10,000 students or more). In the Radio News Reporting category, students Hope Karnopp and Tyler Katzenberger were recognized as finalists for their weekly campus news episode on WORT 89.9 FM, “Cardinal Call: Interstate Plasma to Close Campus-Area Location.”

Katzenberger also won the award for Food/Restaurant Journalism with his Capital Times article, “Cut the curds: Farmer John’s cheese ousted from Dane County Farmers’ Market” and was a finalist in the In-Depth Reporting for a large school category for another Capital Times article, “Why does UW-Madison rank dead last in sustainability among its peers?“