Latest Faculty Graduate Wins The Chronicle’s Award for Younger Journalists — science weblog
A latest alumna whose undergraduate years had been dominated by the pandemic has gained the 2023 David W. Miller Award for Younger Journalists. The $3,000 prize, which honors the highest reporting intern within the Chronicle newsroom from the previous yr, was awarded to Grace Mayer, The Chronicle stated on Thursday.
Mayer, who grew up in Wausau, Wis., and now lives in Overland Park, Kan., graduated from Boston Faculty in 2022. She majored in administration, with a focus in advertising and a minor in journalism, throughout what she describes as a “actually tough” and “actually modified” undergraduate profession after the pandemic struck, in her sophomore yr.
The challenges have continued since she graduated, amid the financial issues going through the information trade, she stated in an interview. Nonetheless, she hailed her stint as a Chronicle intern as a “very motivating” expertise in a “optimistic surroundings.” Her long-term aim is to remain in journalism.
Mayer gained the Miller Award on the idea of three articles she wrote throughout her internship this previous fall. One article described how the pandemic had worsened working circumstances for food-service staff at two schools, and the way that had led them to unionize. One other article, reported and written on a two-day deadline with Carolyn Kuimelis, one other Chronicle intern, lined the impression of a strike by 48,000 graduate college students, postdocs, researchers, and others throughout the 10-campus College of California system. And a 3rd article analyzed the upcoming collision of transgender college students’ rights, conservative states’ backlash in opposition to them, and the Biden administration’s forthcoming Title IX rules.
The panel of judges who selected Mayer for the award applauded her ambition in these articles and her eloquent writing. The article on transgender college students, for instance, confirmed her command of their historical past of battle however was additionally forward-looking in its evaluation of the doubtless impression of the federal rules, the judges stated. All of her tales humanized what may need been dry experiences on federal, state, or campus insurance policies by together with a mess of voices, captured by somebody who’s clearly an excellent listener.
Mayer stated within the interview that getting individuals to speak together with her for the dining-worker story was a problem, however ultimately she constructed belief and felt honored that they had been “so open about their experiences.” She added to the drama of the article by reconstructing campus occasions from movies she had obtained.
The aim of the award is to increase the legacy of David W. Miller, a Chronicle senior author who was killed by a drunken driver on his manner house from a reporting journey to the Allied Social Science Associations’ annual assembly in 2002. Miller, who was 35, left a spouse and two younger sons, together with an toddler. One son is a latest school graduate, and the opposite is a university junior.
The award’s aim is to acknowledge interns whose work follows Miller’s personal, which demonstrated a robust curiosity about individuals and concepts, dedication to equity, and fervour for excellent writing.