Journalism senior Ivana Rihter has been named this year's Lincoln Laureate representing DePaul University.
According to the university’s Student Affairs
website, the Lincoln Laureate Award is presented by the Lincoln Academy of Illinois each year to outstanding college seniors with the Lincoln Academy Student Laureate Award. This award is presented to one senior from each of the four-year degree-granting colleges and universities in Illinois for excellence in curricular and extracurricular activities.
Journalism faculty member and
14 East Advisor Amy Merrick had high praise for Ivana.
“Ivana has an incredible ability to uplift and inspire those around her. She is the first editor-in-chief of 14 East, a weekly online magazine published by DePaul University students exploring a wide array of subjects from politics to literature to culture. With an emphasis on long-form and multimedia narrative, its aim is to humanize issues important to young adults in Chicago.
“She also has been a leader in her journalism classes. She contributed to a project in Chris Bury's investigative reporting class on the funding of DePaul's new basketball arena that received a Lisagor award from the Chicago Headline Club, in a competition open to all professional Chicago journalists. She also was selected for the Center for Journalism Integrity and Excellence advanced reporting class taught by Carol Marin and Don Moseley. The class produced a story and broadcast package for WTTW on Chicago's gun offender registry.”
Journalism Professor Jason Martin also reflected on his student’s honor.
“Ivana is an outstanding journalist, student and role model. She works hard to gather facts and to write, edit and present important stories that have care for their subjects and inform her readers in order to make their communities better.”
The Lincoln Academy, unique among the fifty states, was established in 1964 to honor Illinois’ most distinguished citizens with the state’s highest award, the Order of Lincoln. Since 1975, nominated student laureates are honored each fall at a ceremony and luncheon at the Old State Capitol in Springfield.
This is the 2nd consecutive year a DePaul Journalism student has been named a Lincoln Laureate. Last year, Jessica Villagomez won the Lincoln Laureate for DePaul and the College of Communication.
“Our faculty could not be prouder of students like Ivana and Jessica, who deserve all of the recognition they receive thanks to their hard work,” said Martin.