Virginia Hamilton Conference Registration Opens

Four Kent State students and alumni were recognized among the best in collegiate journalism for the 2022-23 academic year, placing in the Hearst Journalism Awards competition.

The Hearst awards are known as the “Pulitzer Prize of Collegiate Journalism,” and recognize outstanding student work in categories spanning writing, multimedia, audio, television and photojournalism.

Kent State student Sophia Lucente, '24, has dreamed of becoming an international photojournalist since starting college. A junior journalism major with minors in media advocacy and photojournalism, she got her first taste of what this career might be like on a study abroad course to Colombia with the School of Peace and Conflict Studies in early 2023. 

Students are exploring new methods of storytelling in the latest collaboration between the School of Emerging Media and Technology, Design Innovation and the Reinberger Library Center.

Children’s Literature in Augmented Reality is unlike many other courses on campus. The class examines storytelling, social justice and augmented reality to create new, immersive experiences inspired by children’s literature. This semester, three student groups created dynamic projects that focus on neurodivergence, animal rights and diversity.  

Kent State University has awarded the Alan Canfora Activism Scholarship for 2023-2024 to activist and incoming Kent State student Kyndra Irwin of Mount Gilead High School in Mount Gilead, Ohio. Kyndra’s personal history has driven her life of activism. Diagnosed with Tourette’s Syndrome (TS) in middle school, she wrote in her essay that she experienced “a sudden onslaught of motor movement and verbal sounds.”

Serving as the Chair of the May 4 Task Force has been something communication studies major Avery Hall, ’23, describes as one of the most impactful and rewarding experiences she’s had at Kent State University. “May 4, 1970, is a living legacy at Kent State with relevant implications for students today. Continuing the legacy of May 4th quickly became of great importance to me,” she said.

With fake news running rampant across the country, organizations like the News Literacy Project are on a mission to create better informed, more engaged and more empowered individuals. This spring, Kent State public relations students earned national recognition for their work creating a campaign that advanced this non-profit’s mission. 

At Hyde Park's famous Speaker's Corner in London, citizens come together to discuss social issues they are passionate about. A similar tradition exists at Kent State: The Hyde Park Forum is a long-standing public speaking competition, featuring student finalists from COMM 15000: Intro to Human Communication, who perform their persuasive speeches from class. COMM 15000 is open to all Kent State students. This year’s forum, which took place April 12, was the first to be held since 2019 due to the pandemic.

As a Producer for the Cleveland Cavaliers, Kent State alumna Crystal Smith, ’18, never imagined the career path she is currently on and the opportunities it would lead to. But through networking and stepping out of her comfort zone, she says she’s discovered new passions and interests.  

Sophie Young, ’23, a senior in the School of Media and Journalism, has always admired the New York Times and everything about it (including the Wordle).

“It’s a lot of what I consume,” she says. “I get three different New York Times emails in my Inbox every day, and I’ve been reading them for a long time.”

Catherine Smith, a professor in the School of Emerging Media and Technology and School of Information, said she remembers the days of male-dominated tech conferences with so little space for women, even the restrooms were exclusive to men. 

“If you're a woman, you’d have to go running around trying to find the one women's room that's open,” Smith said. “So women would get together and they would say, ‘This isn't right. This isn't good; we should feel more comfortable in our own professional space.’”