UWRF students pose with awards from the 2024 WNAF Collegiate Better Newspaper Contest. From left to right: Johan Harworth, Jack Schindler Van Hoof, Ethan Lay, Kellen Kirsling, Sophia Robinson, Alison Keeler and Ratana Mong. Submitted photo.
 

UWRF student newspaper wins six awards

March 13, 2025 - The Student Voice, the student newspaper at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, earned six awards at the annual Collegiate Better Newspaper Contest. The awards are sponsored by the Wisconsin Newspaper Association Foundation and were announced March 7 during a ceremony in Madison.

Ethan Lay, a junior journalism major from Forest Lake, Minn. won first place in Division B for his sports story, “UWRF Women’s Hockey: Achieving Two Decades of Success.” Kellen Kirsling, a first-year pre-veterinary medicine student from Chaska, Minn., also won first place in Division B for sports photography. Judges noted that Kirsling’s work was “the clear winner.” 

“Compositions were very good. Impact was strong, especially with the game shot and
the band/drummer photo. The fans photo has a very interesting overall composition, but the color palette is washed, probably by natural sun. This photographer has a strong eye for intriguing shapes and color while including the human element,” they added.
 
Jack Van Hoof, editor of The Student Voice, earned an honorable mention in the Arts and
Entertainment Story category for his reporting on UWRF’s Dance Theatre. Van Hoof is a senior English major from Hudson. The newspaper’s staff also won second place in the Public Affairs Reporting category for the editorial “Jobs Are in Jeopardy, but Student Workers Aren’t Expendable,” published in October 2024.
 
 “The story was very thorough,” the judges noted, “packed with evidently well-researched information. Good use of quotes.”
 
Former Assistant Editor Lexi Janzer, who hails from Mayville, and General Manager Joshua Brauer of Waukesha, both 2024 graduates, received third place for their work on a health story titled “Dan’s Bandana Project Supported at UWRF” and a feature story, “ROTC Students Take on Second Bataan March.” Both were published in the April 2024 edition of The Student Voice.
 
The Student Voice is a student-run campus media organization supported primarily by student fees and advised by faculty in of the Communication and Media Studies Department. Founded in 1916, it produces a monthly print edition and maintains a website at uwrfvoice.com.
 
The 2024 Collegiate Better Newspaper Contest, sponsored by theWisconsin Newspaper Association Foundation, featured 287 entries from 15 campus newspapers across 20 categories.
 
For further information, contact The Student Voice faculty adviser, Souzeina Mushtaq at souzeina.mushtaq@uwrf.edu or (715) 425-4103