Five Duke students have been honored with the annual DeWitt Wallace Center awards for excellence in journalism.
Cameron Beach, a 2020 graduate, won the top honors in the Melcher Family Award for Excellence in Journalism for her article about a Duke sophomore who was pursued by bill collectors from Duke Hospital for bills from her rape examination after she was sexually assaulted. Beach’s article was co-published in The 9th Street Journal and INDY Week.
Seniors Rebecca Torrence and Hannah Miao won the Fischer-Zernin Award for Local Journalism. Torrence won in the profile category for her richly detailed portrait of Durham elections director Derek Bowens, which was published in The 9th Street Journal and INDY Week. Miao won in the news feature category for a vivid story about Asian American restaurateurs and merchants in Cleveland struggling to cope with the pandemic. It was published in Cleveland Scene.
Second Prize in the Melcher Award went to Isabella Caracta for her exposé of Jed Rose, a Duke professor who received funding from the tobacco and e-cigarette industries and advocated for vaping on campus. The article was published in the Duke Chronicle.
Third prize went to Cameron Oglesby for her two-part Duke Chronicle podcast Bridging the Gap, which told important stories about discrimination and marginalization at Duke.
The awards will be presented at a dinner in the fall.