KU student places in national journalism competition

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

Lindsay Hanson, junior in journalism from Concordia, tied for 14th place out of 80 entries in the in-depth writing division of the Hearst Foundation's annual writing competition.

Hanson submitted a package of three stories she had written as the final project for an advanced reporting class during the fall 2002 semester. The stories cover how researchers at the KU Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan., are developing a vaccine for HIV.

Hanson found the story while working as the health and KU Medical Center reporter at the University Daily Kansan, KU's student newspaper. She originally had planned to use the idea as one of the three stories she was required to write each week for the reporting class, but she decided it was worth taking a deeper look at the researchers' progress.

Peggy Kuhr, the Knight chair in community journalism and the professor who taught the reporting class, and Malcolm Gibson, general manager of the Kansan, chose Hanson's work to submit for the competition.

Kuhr said that positive feedback from students and professors and Hanson's efforts to make a complicated subject interesting and clear for the readers prompted her to submit the stories for the contest.

Hanson is the daughter of Noel and Gloria Hanson of Concordia. She began working at the Kansan as a reporter during the fall 2002 semester and now is a copy editor and associate opinion editor. She plans to graduate in May 2004 with degrees in journalism and Spanish and eventually to work as a reporter for a large newspaper.

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 8th in the overall standings at in the contest. Final standings will be released in April.