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Four Kent State students and alumni were recognized among the best in collegiate journalism for the 2022-23 academic year, placing in the Hearst Journalism Awards competition.

The are known as the “Pulitzer Prize of Collegiate Journalism,” and recognize outstanding student work in categories spanning writing, multimedia, audio, television and photojournalism.

In the summer of 2021, as the Taliban took over Afghanistan, many Afghans fled the country. Some landed in Akron, which has one of the largest refugee resettlement programs in Ohio. A network of volunteers and government, nonprofit and educational organizations were waiting. They help new arrivals fleeing war or persecution find not just a haven, but a home in Akron.

Kent State student Sophia Lucente, '24, has dreamed of becoming an international photojournalist since starting college. A junior journalism major with minors in media advocacy and photojournalism, she got her first taste of what this career might be like on a study abroad course to Colombia with the School of Peace and Conflict Studies in early 2023. 

With fake news running rampant across the country, organizations like the News Literacy Project are on a mission to create better informed, more engaged and more empowered individuals. This spring, Kent State public relations students earned national recognition for their work creating a campaign that advanced this non-profit’s mission. 

The John S. Knight Memorial Journalism Fund annually awards scholarships to outstanding university students studying journalism, communication and public relations. This year, eight of the 10 scholarship recipients were �鶹��ý students. 

In a return to the School of Media and Journalism’s pre-COVID tradition of hosting a spr

As a Producer for the Cleveland Cavaliers, Kent State alumna Crystal Smith, ’18, never imagined the career path she is currently on and the opportunities it would lead to. But through networking and stepping out of her comfort zone, she says she’s discovered new passions and interests.  

Sophie Young, ’23, a senior in the School of Media and Journalism, has always admired the New York Times and everything about it (including the Wordle).

“It’s a lot of what I consume,” she says. “I get three different New York Times emails in my Inbox every day, and I’ve been reading them for a long time.”

Collaboration and teamwork have been the common threads that have led Kent State Media and Journalism alumna Raytevia Evans, M.A. ‘12, through teaching English abroad, graduate school, work as an education reporter and now, as a public information officer. She says that every time she’s produced work she’s proud of, it has been the result of a group project. 

In America, conversations about grief and loss are often avoided, and in art, tend to be sugarcoated, or even “corny.”

Kent State Assistant Professor and independent filmmaker Dana White is changing that narrative through her work, and was recently recognized by the Ohio Arts Council.