College of Journalism and Mass Communications News

The Lincoln chapter of the American Marketing Association held their annual Prism awards to celebrate the strength and innovation of Lincoln’s marketers on Thursday, June 17. Each year, an AMA chapter from another city judges award entries from local agencies and corporate marketing teams, identifying winners for the merit and Prism awards.

May 2021 graduates Luke Mullin and Natalie Saenz both placed as runners-up in their respective categories of the Hearst Journalism Awards National Championships. Mullin was a runner-up in the Hearst National Writing Competition and Saenz was a runner-up in the National Audio Championship. Saenz also received the Best Use of Audio for News Coverage Award during the competition.  

Congratulations to Morgan Holen who was crowned Miss Nebraska Sunday, June 13 in North Platte, NE. Her platform “Lead With Your Strengths: The Power of Strengths-Based Mentoring” is something she’d been refining since she was crowned Miss Omaha in October 2019.

362 students earned a place on the spring 2021 semester Dean’s List. Students from all over the country and the world, within each of our four majors, were awarded the honor. For undergraduates to be included on the Dean’s List, they must have earned at least a 3.7 semester GPA and have completed 12 or more credit hours that semester.

Keri Mesropov, Kelley Peterson and Andrew Ward have joined the College of Journalism and Mass Communications as professionals in residence (PIRs) as part of a new college-wide experiential program in fall 2021. Professionals will work one-on-one with program participants to provide mentorship and feedback.

Assistant Professor of Practice Kaci Richter took second place in the National Federation of Press Women (NFPW) Communications Contest Talk Show: Radio category on June 11, 2021.  

Five faculty from the College of Journalism and Mass Communications earned grants from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Center for Transformative Teaching on May 27, 2021.

Three CoJMC students (now alumni) participated in the 2020 News 21 program investigative report, Kids Imprisoned, an in-depth report on juvenile justice in America. Ike Somanas, Morgan Wallace and James Wooldridge were part of the team that won the 2021 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award that recognizes the best collegiate reporting in the country on social justice issues.

“I’m very excited about our new crew of CoJMC Ambassadors,” said Alex Fernando, the CoJMC’s recruiting coordinator. “It’s going to be very fun working with them in the future and I hope to assist in their development to be powerful and impactful leaders, not only on this campus, but throughout the world.”

Christian Horn, a May 2021 Nebraska graduate, has been able to utilize the skills he developed while at the CoJMC in his new job as the sports reporter for the York News-Times. In this position he covers sports for 10 area high schools and takes his own photos for publication. While studying both journalism and sports media & communication at the CoJMC he says that the best part of being a Husker was the relationships he was able to form with the staff and students.