2 KU students place in national journalism profile story competition

LAWRENCE -- Two University of Kansas journalism students recently placed in the top 20 in the national Hearst Journalism Awards Program.

Adam Pracht, Emporia junior, placed fifth in the competition for a story on a homeless man on campus, earning a $600 scholarship. Nathan Dayani, Prairie Village senior, placed 13th with a story on two KU students who sold marijuana. Ninety-four students from across the country entered the contest.

Pracht's story for the contest was a profile of Robert Gilmore, a homeless man who lived outside a KU building. According to Pracht, Gilmore's story had eluded several reporters before him and required extensive and creative research because Gilmore was reluctant to give out much information about his life.

Gilmore's story led Pracht through a labyrinth of sources, ranging from the few people in Lawrence who had personal contact with Gilmore, to officers in the KU Public Safety Office and Lawrence Police Department, to an official in the Branson, Mo., school district office who coincidentally had attended high school with Gilmore.

Pracht received the story as an assignment as a staff writer for the University Daily Kansan, KU's student newspaper, and submitted it as his final project for an advanced reporting class in the School of Journalism and Mass Communications. The Kansan published the story on May 1, 2002.

Pracht is the son of Dale and Alice Pracht of Emporia and is an Emporia High School graduate. He plans to graduate in May 2004 with degrees in journalism and Spanish and hopes to land a job as a newspaper reporter or copy editor. He has served as a correspondent, staff reporter, copy editor and satire page editor at the Kansan, and he is a copy chief for the newspaper.

Dayani's piece profiled the experiences of two KU students who sold marijuana -- how they got started, their lifestyles as they were dealing and how their drug-dealing days ended, including the arrest and conviction of one. Dayani said it was a subject he had wanted to write about for some time, and he chose it as the final project for his advanced reporting class. The story ran in the Dec. 6, 2002, edition of the Kansan.

Dayani is the son of Julie Dayani and Jim Dayani, both of Prairie Village, and he is a Shawnee Mission East High School graduate. He has served as a copy editor for the Kansan and has worked on the staff of the Jayhawk Journalist, KU's student magazine. He plans to graduate in July with a journalism degree and will seek work at a newspaper or magazine.

The Hearst Journalism Awards Program consists of monthly writing, photojournalism and broadcast news competitions, with championship finals in all divisions. At the end of the year, the Hearst Foundation totals the points earned by each school and releases a ranking.

KU is currently sixth in the overall standings in the contest. Final standings will be released later in April.