Cody Stavenhagen, a senior sports media major at Oklahoma State University, placed second in the prestigious National Writing Championship, sponsored by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation’s Journalism Awards program.
Stavenhagen traveled to San Franciso for a four-day, all-expenses-paid trip after being selected to compete with seven other college journalists in on-site writing exercises for the championship round. At the end of the competition, he was named the nation’s second best collegiate journalism writer, netting a $4,000 scholarship in addition to his previous winnings in earlier stages of the contest.
College journalists from accredited journalism programs throughout the country submitted work they had done throughout the previous year to one of five categories for the Hearst Journalism Awards: writing, photography, radio, television and multimedia.
Stavenhagan submitted two pieces to the initial stages of the competition. The first was a third-place winning sports writing piece covering OSU football coach Mike Gundy’s management of his program. The second was a fifth-place winning profile piece on former OSU football and NFL player Jevon Langford. Although the Gundy piece was more high profile, the Langford piece was the one that was special to Stavenhagen.
“I was the only person with two top five pieces,” Stavenhagen said. “This was a really big deal. It’s the biggest honor you can get in collegiate journalism. The one on Jevon Langford, though, I put a lot of heart and passion into that one. To see that win definitely meant a lot.”
The Hearst Foundation Journalism Awards, often considered the Pulitzer Prize of college journalism, works with the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication, to accept student entries each year. From June 1-4, 2015, 29 finalists – all winners from 14 prior competitions, participated in the 55th annual Hearst National Writing Championship.
Stavenhagen recognized that his advisor, Barbara Allen, lecturer at the OSU School of Media & Strategic Communications and faculty advisor for OSU’s student newspaper, the O’Colly, was key in keeping him focused and motivated throughout all stages of the competition. Allen expressed her happiness for Stavenhagen but was not surprised by his success.
“For him to go to San Francisco on his own and beat some of the best student journalists in the country says a lot about his talent,” Allen said. “You can be a good reporter, and you can be a good writer, but very rarely can you be both. Cody is both.”
Stavenhagen, from Amarillo, Texas, is currently interning at his dream job with MLB.com covering the Texas Rangers. He has held previous internships with The Oklahoman and the Amarillo Globe-News, as well as having served as a sports writer, sports editor, managing editor and editor-in-chief for the O’Colly. He will graduate this December and hopes to eventually write profile pieces for an organization like ESPN.
For more information about the Hearst Foundation Journalism Awards visit www.hearstfdn.org/hearst_journalism/index.html. For more information about the OSU School of Media & Strategic Communications visit www.media.okstate.edu.