UH Mānoa students sweep Society of Professional Journalists competition

July 6, 2018
UH News

Reading time: 2 minutes

6 people standing in a line holding award plaques — Society of Professional Journalists UH student award honorees and UH Mānoa faculty, from left, Professor Ann Auman, Nicole Tam, Bianca Smallwood, Annabelle Le Jeune and Dillon Ancheta and Instructor Sherrie White.

Journalism majors in the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s College of Social Sciences swept the student category in this year’s statewide Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Excellence in Journalism competition, earning first-place awards in all six categories.

As the field of journalism has been under attack nationally—both via political rhetoric and actual physical attacks and threats—UH Mānoa journalism students in the School of Communications have been ambitiously creating new digital media channels for the community.

These channels include Hoʻa Oʻahu, an independent student news website advised by Associate Professor Brett Oppegaard, and UHMtv, a 30-minute video news magazine featured on KFVE that is overseen by Associate Professor Gerald Kato and instructors Bernadette Baraquio and Sherrie White.

First-place UH Mānoa winners:

Victoria Cuba, “At the Frontlines of Homelessness,” student news reporting in any media, Hoʻa Oʻahu.
Annabelle Le Jeune, “Why a Hawaiʻi Sculptor Keeps Returning to the Same Hill in India,” student feature reporting in any media, Hoʻa Oʻahu/Civil Beat.
Drew Afualo, “Small Kine Famous (profile of University of Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa),” student spot news in any media, Hoʻa Oʻahu.
Dillon Ancheta, “Ala Wai Filth,” student investigative reporting in any media, UHMtv.
Kristen Wong, “Traditional Hawaiian Tattoos,” student video news, UHMtv.
Danielle Vallejo, “The Man Behind the Knife (photos of illegal cockfighting),” student photography, Hoʻa Oʻahu.

For a complete list of other UH student honorees including finalist awards, download the winner’s list at the SPJ website.

3 students standing together — From left, Society of Professional Journalists interns Darryl Kaneyuki, Mika Morii Rawson and Shannon Manamtam.

In other SPJ Hawaiʻi news, 6 of 11 interns who are recipients of SPJ-funded summer internships are UH students.

They are Leeward Community College’s Jasmine Bautista (Hawaiʻi), and SPJ Mānoa’s Darryl Kaneyuki (Hawaiʻi Business), Shannon Manamtam (KITV4), Harrison Patino (Hawaiʻi Public Radio), Mika Morii Rawson (Alexander and Baldwin) and Jasmine Yi (Pacific Edge).