DePaul
Journalism students have been nominated as finalists in the Chicago Headline Club’s Peter Lisagor Awards for the second consecutive year.
The DePaulia’s investigation into the public/private funding of the DePaul’s Wintrust Arena was announced as one of three finalists in best sports story for non-daily newspapers in Illinois, the Headline Club recently announced.
DePaul students will compete against Crain’s Chicago Business and Chicago magazine for top honors, which will be announced at a ceremony May 12. The 40th annual Lisagor Awards attracted a near-record 871 entries.
Students in Senior Journalist-in-Residence Chris Bury’s Investigative Reporting class produced a series of stories and multimedia for the DePaulia called “Payment Day: University funds for arena due next month.” The work previously was recognized as one of three national finalists for investigative reporting at the 2016 College Media Association’s Pinnacle Awards.
Students in the class who worked on the project included Amanda Crane, Anita Lukacs, Brendan Pedersen, Frank Muisenga, Jen Nazha, Jessica Duarte, Matthew Paras, Agathe Muller, Brenden Welper, Deni Kemper, Khari Thornton, Vanessa Navarrete, Adam Garlewicz, Alicya Dennison, Bea Aldrich, Gurnik Singh, Maxwell Newsom, Samanatha Rivera, Evelyn Baker, Ivana Rihter, Michael Schmidt, Piper Schad and Sanjana Karanth.
Bury is a former national correspondent for ABC News who won Emmy and Peabody Awards during a distinguished investigative and political reporting career. He’s been part of the DePaul Journalism Program’s full-time faculty since 2013.
“Instilling in students the ethics and values of quality reporting that holds government and societal power accountable is a cornerstone of our program,” said Journalism Program Chair Jason Martin. “Chris Bury’s Investigative Reporting class is one of those advanced electives that students look forward to taking all year, and his students have had great success partnering with The DePaulia to publish their work. We’re excited that our students get to learn from the best and do work that’s honored alongside Chicago’s professional journalists.”
In addition to the student finalists, DePaul alumni Jeremy Gorner (Best Deadline Reporting, Overall and Online) and Ryan Burrow (Best Reporter, Best Feature Series, Best Breaking News Story in Radio) were named finalists for the Lisagor Awards.
DePaul students also were finalists last year in three Lisagor Award categories, including best non-deadline reporting for The DePaulia’s coverage of sexual violence on campus.