The Daily Emerald won 19 awards in the annual Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association’s collegiate contest — much more than it has in recent memory.
Every year, college newspapers from all over the state submit entries to the ONPA to see how their content stacks up to the rest. The ONPA judges writing, photography, sections, websites, design and graphics.
In 2022, The Emerald won five first place awards, six second place awards and eight third place awards, raising the bar compared to previous years. It won 13 ONPA awards in 2021, eight in 2020 and 11 in 2019.
The Emerald won first place in the best website category for its home page and the Sexual Assault Awareness Month edition won second place for best special section.
Alexis Weisend won first place for best news story with her article reporting on the experiences and challenges of Oregon’s historic 2021 wildfire season. She also won third place in the same category for her reporting on unsafe classroom environments and rising COVID-19 cases following the return of in-person classes to the University of Oregon.
Opinion editor Francis O’Leary won first place for best editorial for writing about The Emerald Trust Project, an initiative to include the public in The Emerald’s content creation. The opinion desk won second place for best section.
Former Emerald Editor-in-Chief Ryan Nguyen won third place in the best editorial category for his piece focused on The Emerald newsroom census, which laid out The Emerald’s own successes and shortcomings with diversity and inclusion.
Managing editor Jael Calloway took second place in the best columnist category. She’s been writing an opinion column for The Emerald since fall of 2020, and most recently covered topics like resisting the instinct to constantly say sorry or how to prepare for a major earthquake in the Pacific Northwest, often called “the big one”.
Aisha Ghorashian took third place in the best columnist category for her sex and relationships column titled “Asking For a Friend.”
Arts and Culture reporter Malena Saadeh won second place in the best review category for her review of Adele’s newest album, “30.” The Arts and Culture desk took third place for best special section.
In the best sports story category, sports editor Shane Hoffmann won third place for his piece about Frank Kepneng, who traveled to the United States from his home country of Cameroon to pursue basketball and now plays center for the UO basketball team. Hoffmann also won second place for best writing after taking third place in the category last year.
Arts and Culture reporter Nika Bartoo-Smith took third place in the best writing category. Bartoo-Smith writes a weekly column called “Campus Creatives,” which tells the stories of unique community members on campus.
Photo editor Ian Enger won first place for best photography, and Emerald photographer Will Geschke won second place in the same category.
Serei Hendrie won first place in the best sports photo category for his photo of UO running back Travis Dye, which was featured in a story about the UO athlete.
In the best spot news story category, Emerald photographer Maddie Knight won third place for her photos of bees being returned to the roof of the EMU.
Photographer Isaac Wasserman won best feature photo for his portrait of Eugene bartender Jeremy Ennion. His photo package was featured with an article highlighting local bars, pubs and breweries.
