University of Richmond students win five Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence awards in 2012 regional journalism competition

Three University of Richmond students won a total of five awards for their work in design, writing and photography in the Society of Professional Journalists’ 2012 regional Mark of Excellence college journalism competition. Students in Delaware, Maryland, the District of Columbia, Virginia and North Carolina entered.

Competing in the small college division (under 5,000 students), John McAuliff, a junior from Irvington, N.Y., won two first place awards, a second place and a third place for his stories published by USA TODAY and The Collegian, the university’s student newspaper. He and co-authors Rebecca Wilson, a sophomore from Roanoke, Va., and Abby Kahler, a freshman from Fairfax, Va., won a third place in feature writing.

McAuliff’s first place entries move on to the national Mark of Excellence competition, where they will be judged against the top award winners from each of the country’s other 11 SPJ regions. National award winners will be recognized in August at the Excellence in Journalism 2013 conference in Anaheim, Calif., held by SPJ, the Radio-Television-Digital News Association and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

McAuliff’s first place entry in the online feature writing category was an article published by The Collegian, titled "Election Day 2012: Watch Guide and Prediction." The judges noted strong use of photo illustrations and research elements (thecollegianur.com/2012/11/06/election-day-2012-watch-guide-and-predictions/30273/).

His first place award in the general news reporting category was for a series published by USA Today, titled "Real Impact: How a dangerous fake ID website was shut down by an article." It chronicled the story of a Chinese fake ID website that was shut down by the federal government after U.S. senators read an article by McAuliff about the site (newsle.com/article/0/22844292/).

McAuliff wrote the articles during a 2012 summer internship on the national newspaper’s breaking news desk.

Last spring, McAuliff won a Virginia SPJ,SDX Educational Foundation scholarship for promising college journalists.