The Hilltop took home regional awards and recognition for their multimedia, in-depth and feature-length reporting pieces at last weekend’s Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Region 2 Conference.
For her work in hosting, scripting and editing the nearly 100-year-old publication’s first weekly podcast, The HillTalks, multimedia editor Olivia Green received the award for Best Use of Multimedia. The HillTalks is released every Thursday, following Monday’s online publication, and reports the stories of the week with further insight into one particular story with an interview with either the reporter, editor or a source from the article.
With the debut of the investigative unit under editor Makenna Underwood, she and reporters Alecia Taylor and Tamilore Oshikanlu were rewarded for In-Depth Reporting (Large) that revealed new details about the university’s longest-running protest, The Blackburn Takeover. In their reporting, Taylor and Oshikanlu exposed the uncommon nature of the agreement student protesters and administrators reached to end the 34-day sit-in against university dorm conditions last school year.
Lastly, Jasper Smith, the 2022-2023 editor in chief, was named a finalist for Feature Writing, Large, for her reporting on the excess in students establishing GoFundMe fundraisers to fund outstanding tuition balances. Smith’s enterprise reporting raised awareness to the financial struggles many Howard students were facing and the heights they were going to appease them.
The Mark of Excellence Awards are SPJ’s exclusive awards for student journalism with select regional and national awards. Congratulations are in order for The Hilltop’s very own regional award recipients and well wishes are welcomed as they progress to the national competition.
Copy edited by Chanice McClover-Lee
