Two more Hearst Awards for J-Students

By Danny Bobbe
J-School Web Reporter

University of Montana journalism students have been recognized by the Hearst Journalism Awards Program yet again, earning 11th place finishes in the Personality/Profile Writing and the Broadcast News categories.

The J-School is currently seventh in this year’s Hearst writing competition and ninth in the broadcast news competition. The last group of winners has yet to be announced in the final round of the writing competition. Hearst Awards are often regarded as the Pulitzer Prizes of college journalism.

K'Lynn Sloan
Pete Delmoe
photos by Lizz Rauf

Print senior Pete Delmoe and broadcast senior K’Lynn Sloan are the latest to be honored.

Delmoe wrote a profile about American Indian basketball player Mike Chavez, who was a protégé at his high school near Heart Butte, Mont., but encountered problems with alcohol upon coming to UM. He interviewed Chavez three or four times, along with his teammates, coaches and his mother.

“I was shocked with how open he was with me,” said Delmoe. “Within talking to him over the first hour I knew [the story] was golden.”

Delmoe said he wished he had been able to break into the top 10 with his story and also regrets that he was a “green” reporter when he wrote it, without a lot of experience. Currently he is working on a piece about students who use steroids and are not part of a university athletic program.

K’Lynn Sloan also wishes she had broken into the top 10 with her package of three separate radio pieces. Sloan finished in 14th place in last year’s competition and said she wanted a piece of the reward money that begins to pay off at 10th place.

“I was excited to do better than I did last year,” she said. “But I’m bummed I missed out on the cash.”

Regardless, both students should be proud of their achievement, considering the level of competition they faced. In the Personality/Profile Writing Competition, for example, 109 students from 63 schools entered.

In the broadcast competition, Sloan entered a package of three stories, all covering Missoula events that happened over the last year, like the Jon Tester rally that took place just prior to election night last November.

One of the three stories Sloan entered took place at a town meeting that initially appeared to be a mundane event, Sloan said. “I thought it was going to be boring,” she said.

But the meeting was on road expansion near campus and many people began giving passionate, or at least unusual, speeches about what it meant to them. Afterward Sloan put together a piece she thought was strong enough to enter in the competition.

Having the equipment, training and chance to report stories like these are the aspects of the journalism program that Sloan values most.

“I’m grateful for the opportunities we get here at the School of Journalism — being able to do real work before we graduate,” she said.

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