Finalists for 2019 ACP/Ernie Pyle Reporter of the Year

Associated Collegiate Press has announced its finalists for the 2019 ACP/Ernie Pyle Reporter of the Year competition.

All finalists will be recognized and the winners announced for the first time at the ACP/CMA National College Media Convention, Oct. 31-Nov. 3, 2019, in Washington, D.C., on Saturday afternoon. First- through fifth-place winners will receive plaques, and five honorable mention winners will receive certificates.

This award is named in honor of 1944 Pulitzer Prize winner Ernie Pyle.

Pyle was an extraordinary journalist with an array of skills. He had the ability to reach out and make folks feel comfortable, as they shared both good times and tough times. For the last 10 years of his life, Pyle’s columns ran six times a week, primarily in Scripps-Howard newspapers.

This ACP/Ernie Pyle Reporter of the Year Award is created in partnership with ACP, the Ernie Pyle Legacy Foundation and Scripps Howard.

The first-place winner earns $1,000, and the second and third place winners $500 and $250 respectively in categories for both two-year and four-year schools.

Finalists are shown below in alphabetical order by state.

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Two-year college finalists

Katy Stegall
The Sun
Southwestern College
• President cancels ASO election
• Frederick Jefferson found dead in cell
• Take me to church

David Mamaril Horowitz
The Guardsman
City College of San Francisco
Workers find support, community in thriving college program
• Unsafe air quality: College copes with Camp Fire Smoke
• CCSF’s governing board violates transparency policy three times

Marta Konarska
el Don
Santa Ana College
• Shift changes: Custodial vacancies result in heavier workload, complaints about dirty campus
• Far from home: International Student Association helps newcomers adjust to live in the U.S.

Timothy Cech
The Express
Las Positas College
• The healing place: A warrior returns to the theater
• Close encounters of the LPC kind
Geology department builds new worlds in a digital playground

Michael Santone
The Advocate
Contra Costa College
• Process tainted: Search yields finalists with background in sexual assault
• Search discontinued: Campus concerns spur decision to suspend candidate selections
• Africanism inspires passion

Christian Ortega
The Reporter
Miami Dade College, North Campus
• Homestead campus SGA president robbed at gunpoint
• From fan to executive producer, Mike Ryan Ruiz shepherds one of ESPN’s top programs
• MDC baseball legend Demie Mainieri passes away at 90

Lilly Kujawski
The Washtenaw Voice
Washtenaw Community College
• Student rewrites history
• Suicide attempt prompts safety concerns
• Revolving door revolts me (but we should use it)

J.W. McNay
The Collegian
Tarrant County College
• A chance to survive
• Beto rallies voters
• Student leaders meet in Austin to be heard

Skye Seipp
Et Cetera
Eastfield College
• College improves minority, overall completion
• Blazing toward reform: Texas • Legislature considers 4 marijuana bills
Trump’s wall demand demonstrates totalitarianism

Victoria Magee
The MATC Times
Milwaukee Area Technical College
MATC Promise wins big at 2019 MANDI awards
Democratic convention puts MATC in spotlight
Lt. Gov. Barnes discuses proposed budget battle


Four-year college finalists

Cassandra Garibay
Mustang News
California Polytechnic State University
Reporting on diversity as a Latina at Cal Poly
Who’s watching your drink: Students drugged in downtown San Luis Obispo
Cal Poly announces $700 million fundraising campaign, the largest in the university’s history

William Solomons
The Signal
Georgia State University
Georgia State top donor gifts potentially inflated stock
An iconic Georgia State relic, 93 years in the making
Five SGA officials went to Israel for free. That may have violated their constitution.

Zach Piatt
The Ball State Daily News
Ball State University
Band of brothers: Ball State’s 1989-90 men’s basketball team was more than the greatest in school history
Trey Uetrecht’s positive attitude through adversity has inspired Ball State Football
Dugout Chatter: ‘It’s game day’

Matthew Kelly
The Sunflower
Wichita State University
WSU promised donors $20 million for business building would come from ‘university funds.’ Now, they need students to vote ‘yes’ on raising their own fees.
After 30 years of service, military spy finds second career as parking services officer
WSU deserves to meet its presidential finalists

Ross Matican
The Carletonian
Carleton College
Women’s basketball confronts retention challenges, allegations of injury mishandling
Gay dating at Carleton is lonely and abysmal
Record low acceptance rate, record high diversity in 2023 admit pool

George Stoia
The OU Daily
University of Oklahoma
Concussions, consequence and conscience: OU football great Rickey Dixon reflects on Hall of Fame career that’s killing him
Kyler Murray: Circle of Trust
Heisman weekend an emotional, long-awaited trip to New York for more than Kyler Murray

William Snow
The Daily Pennsylvanian
The University of Pennsylvania
When a player gets up dazed, Part I: Three former Penn sprint football players deal with the effects of playing through brain injuries during the 2017 season
Why I never belonged at Penn
No one is listening’: Under new coach, players lose hope amid alleged mistreatment

Hannah Lathen
The Rambler
Texas Wesleyan University
• Journalists are not America’s enemies
• Human trafficking: A former student’s story
• Wesleyan will welcome its final athletic training majors in summer and fall 2019 

Katherine Martin
The Defender
Saint Michael’s College
• Adderall: At what price?
• First gens make their mark
• Should chivalry die?

Manisha Jha
The Daily
University of Washington
‘I didn’t envision nothing beyond my neighborhood’: How the No New Youth Jail coalition at the UW is trying to break the cycle of suspension, incarceration, and homelessness
Ice Air’s black box of secrets: UW student researchers pave way for King County to ban ICE Air
Two years at the UW under President Trump: The first and last president