The Newseum in Washington, D.C., is an interactive museum focusing on news, journalism and the freedoms of the First Amendment. It was a fitting location for a Penn State student to find out she would be heading to the individual championships in a competition often referred to as "the Pulitzers of college journalism."
Journalism major Erin McCarthy was on a family vacation to the nation’s capital and was in the Newseum when Russ Eshleman, head of the Department of Journalism, called to inform her that she qualified for the individual championships in the 56th annual William Randolph Hearst Foundation’s Journalism Awards Program.
“I was very excited and my family was excited, too,” said McCarthy. “That was pretty cool.”
McCarthy, a Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, native who just completed her junior year, qualified on a points-based system, taking second place in the features category and ninth place in the breaking news category. She is one of eight student writers who will participate in the championship. Her second-place story was a piece on Pope Francis, his visit to Philadelphia and how millennials feel about religion. For her breaking news story, she covered a Bill Cosby hearing for the Centre Daily Times.
McCarthy knew she placed second in the features category in November, which earned her a $2,000 scholarship. At that point, she and Eshleman, the instructor for the in-depth reporting class for which she produced the pope story, began to talk about other stories she wrote that could be submitted to help give her enough points to qualify for the championship.
“I met with Russ a bunch of times between when I first found out about the feature story and when we ended up submitting the breaking news story,” said McCarthy. “I knew and we were kind of keeping our fingers crossed that it would end up getting me qualified. We were trying to break down the point possibilities and stuff.”
At the writing championship, scheduled for May 30 to June 2 in San Francisco, students will compose three stories, including a spot news piece, a personality profile and a news story from an interview with a predetermined subject. McCarthy, who has never been to San Francisco, will have a packed schedule there.
In advance of the trip, she plans to read previous winners’ stories, stay on top of current news (particularly from San Francisco), and get a jump on the story topics that she knows before she gets there. In addition, she will keep her writing skills on point during her internship with The Philadelphia Inquirer’s sports desk. McCarthy said officials at the paper were happy to make accommodations so she could compete in San Francisco.
McCarthy, who is one of only a handful of Penn State students to qualify for the championship before their senior year, has heard from previous winner Anna Orso, who competed in two championships and works at BillyPenn.com, a local news site in Philadelphia. McCarthy said Orso reaching out to her took “a little bit of the pressure off” and gave her some tips on what to expect.
“I’m actually pretty excited for the competition aspect. I’m a pretty competitive person, so I do like competing against other reporters, as well as myself and trying to each day get a little bit better,” said McCarthy. “I know I’m still very young and have a lot of room for improvement, naturally. I think it will be really cool to meet and talk to the other writing finalists and even the broadcast finalists and get to know people from other schools because it’s always cool to have those connections in different cities and at different universities.”
With another year of college remaining, the 21-year-old McCarthy has already made the most of her opportunities at Penn State. In the fall, she covered Penn State football for the Inquirer, and in the spring she went to Greece with an international reporting class. She will continue to cover Penn State football this fall alongside veteran reporter Joe Juliano, marking her fifth internship with the Inquirer, with her first coming when she was 18 years old. McCarthy is also a member of the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism, the Association for Women in Sports Media (AWSM) and writes for The Daily Collegian.
“I definitely feel lucky to have had all of those opportunities with the College of Communications. It’s really amazing and I feel really grateful for all of those opportunities I’ve been given, and the resources that are just available to you,” said McCarthy.