UNIVERSITY PARK, PA. — What started out as a class assignment has become much more for one former Penn State student.
A feature story, a profile of a couple committed to the ongoing environmental cleanup in the aftermath of the February 2023 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, became a passion project for Nick Stonesifer.
“I felt dedicated to the story and wanted to share their story. Getting to know them and learning what they do and why they do it, that made it easy to invest in the story,” said Stonesifer, who graduated in May with a bachelor’s degree in telecommunications. He also served as editor of the Daily Collegian.
Stonesifer’s story, “Safekeeper & Creek Guy,” which chronicled the work of Christina Siceloff and Randy Dehaven, finished second in a monthly competition for profile writing as part of the William Randolph Hearst Foundation’s Journalism Awards Program. There were 127 entries from 68 schools submitted for that competition.
With his second-place finish, Stonesifer earned a spot in the Hearst Program’s individual national championships that will be conducted June 1-7 in San Francisco. During that time all entrants in the competition will be challenged to find and write stories with the top finishers becoming the individual national champion.
He’s the eighth Penn State student in the past decade to qualify for the individual national championship. Three Penn State qualifiers have earned the individual national championship in recent years — Melissa Manno (2021), Anna Orso (2014), Andrew McGill (2010), and Halle Stockton (2007).
It’s an exciting opportunity for Stonesifer who enjoys investigative reporting and who will begin a full-time reporting job with Spotlight Delaware once the competition concludes. It’s also a homecoming of sorts, said Stonesifer, whose family spent a year in San Francisco when he was in eighth grade.
“It’s a big opportunity and any opportunity to get better is important,” he said. “I’m passionate about journalism and I think I’m pretty resourceful, so I’m hoping to make the most of it.”