UBC Journalism students have won four out of five 2018 Jack Webster Foundation student journalism awards.
The four students are Lauren Donnelly, Jamuna Galay-Tamang, Dustin Patar and Dannielle Piper. The fifth winner is Srushti Gangdev from BCIT.
The students will receive $2,000 towards school tuition and will be honoured at the Jack Webster Awards dinner, to be held on October 29, 2018, in Vancouver
The awards recognize the legacy of Scottish-born Canadian journalist Jack Webster, who was known for his insightful and uncompromising reporting over more than 40 years of print, radio and television journalism.
The awards are handed out on the basis of journalism experience and an essay in which students write about the importance of journalism and their career goals. They are open to journalism students who are B.C. permanent residents.
Importance of journalism
Award recipient Lauren Donnelly said the honour “reaffirms my conviction that great journalism comes from mentorship and community, and I look forward to passing those gifts on as my career progresses and my knowledge grows.”
For her part, Jamuna Galay-Tamang spoke of her commitment to journalism. “The thing I love about journalism is that it’s a strategic and clever way to creatively, and sometimes sneakily, remind people of the things that matter,” she said.
Award recipient Dannielle Piper thanked the Jack Webster Foundation. “I wish to tell stories of strength and survival and to share new findings with my audience so as to ensure that the readers get something they have yet to discover — either about themselves or the world around them.”
And Dustin Patar described B.C. as “the perfect place to hone this craft and there are so many incredibly talented up-and-coming journalists here.”
“Despite all of the tools we have to stay connected, it’s easy to lose track of the human element in all of us. Journalism is important because it holds a mirror up to our own humanity,” he said.
In 2017, UBC Journalism student Bryan Short received a Webster student journalism award.
