The Colorado chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists has awarded scholarships to three Colorado College journalism minors for its annual Top of the Rockies contest.
Junior Veronica Bianco, from Oregon, who serves as co-editor of the Colorado Collective Outdoor Journal and reports for The Catalyst student newspaper, won a $2,000 scholarship.
“I'm grateful to my mentors, fellow student journalists, and everyone I've shared a newsroom with for teaching me, collaborating with me, and pushing me to produce my best work,” Bianco said about the honor. “This is a pivotal moment for journalism, and I'm excited to do what I can to push the profession forward and help preserve accurate, independent reporting for years to come."
Junior Sydney McGarr, from Tennessee, who served as The Catalyst’s news editor, also won $2,000.
“The achievement is a testament to the growing and learning that I've been able to do with the CC Journalism Institute,” she said. “I'm excited to keep developing my journalistic voice this year with the support of the Colorado chapter of SPJ.”
Both students won the Helen Verba Award for print and digital journalism and earned the highest value scholarships this year for all categories, students, and schools across two states.
Senior Bella Houck, from Littleton, Colorado, who serves as an editor of the campus literary magazine Cipher, won a $1,500 scholarship and the Sheldon Peterson Award for broadcast journalism.
The award, Houck said, will allow her to "graduate with less debt while investing in audio equipment that will support my growth as a freelance journalist.”
This year’s contest was the most competitive in recent memory, said SPJ Colorado’s immediate past president, Doug Bell, who oversaw the awards.
“We had 33 strong applicants this year, and all three recipients from Colorado College were near the top of our ratings,” he said. “We'll be interested to see where their considerable potential and achievements take them going forward.”
Colorado College tied for first place with Colorado State University for the number of students who won awards.
Last year, CC journalism minor Margaret Freeman accepted a $1,000 Helen Verba Award at the SPJ's regional conference in Denver.
In recent years, CC journalism students have produced roughly 200 stories each year in local news outlets as part of their internships and practicums.
The Journalism Institute puts a heavy premium on the importance of local news to democracy and society and provides real-world opportunities for students through classroom assignments and news-academic partnerships.
During last year's commencement speech, award-winning journalist and alum Mike Shum gave a shoutout to the 15 graduating seniors of the college's roughly 50 journalism minors, saying, "This is inspiring to me, because there wasn't a journalism minor when I was a student, and I'm proud Colorado College established the Journalism Institute in 2018."
