Daily Bruin takes home 21 awards at student media convention in Washington

WASHINGTON – The Daily Bruin received more than 20 awards at a national student media convention, including one in honor of its achievements over the past century.

The MediaFest22 convention – held Thursday through Sunday in Washington, D.C. – recognized student newspapers, magazines and yearbooks over the past year with award recipients selected by professors and media professionals. The Bruin received nine Pacemaker awards, issued by the Associated Collegiate Press, and 12 Pinnacle awards, which are issued by the College Media Association.

The Bruin was one of 100 publications to earn a Pacemaker 100, an honor awarded to organizations that have accumulated the greatest number of Pacemaker awards since the award’s inception in 1927. The ceremony was held at the headquarters of The Washington Post.

For the fourth consecutive year, the Bruin’s website won an Online Pacemaker for its online coverage and site design. The award recipients included 2020-2022 Online Editor Mattie Sanseverino, a computer science alumnus, and 2021-2022 Main Site Editor Tommy Vo Tran, a fourth-year computer science student.

The staff also received an honorable mention Pinnacle award in Best Breaking News Coverage for their work on the campus shooting threats in late January.

[Related: Daily Bruin receives two Pacemaker Awards for third consecutive year]

Several staffers also received individual awards for their multimedia and long-form work.

Designers received the most awards with eight total, including for their collaborations with the Illustrations section and on the print issues of PRIME, The Bruin’s quarterly magazine.

Design staffer Keri Chen, a fourth-year communication student, won first place in Best Magazine News/Spread for her work on the print version of PRIME’s fall 2021 story about UCLA’s COVID-19 test vending machines.

Current Sports Editor Sam Settleman, a fourth-year economics and political science student, also received a third-place award in Best Sports Columnist for his columns on topics such as allegations of racism in the UCLA gymnastics program. The Sports section also received three additional awards, including an honorable mention in Best Sports Section.

The News section earned multiple honorable mentions, including in the In-Depth News Story category for an investigation into allegations of racial bias at the David Geffen School of Medicine by News senior staff and former News Editor Anushka Chakrabarti, a fourth-year mathematics/economics student.

The Bruin previously won 20 awards from the California College Media Association in March.

The following is a complete list of 2021-2022 awards received by the Daily Bruin at MediaFest22:

Pacemaker awards:

• Winner, Pacemaker 100
• Winner, Online Pacemaker: Mattie Sanseverino, Tommy Vo Tran
• Third place, Multimedia Feature Story: Natalie Brown for “Heart and Sole: The rise of the modern-day sneakerhead”
• Third place, Podcast: Alan Humphreys for “Fiat Lux: Michael Schindlinger and Irene Chen”
• Fourth place, News/Breaking News Photo: Seth Van Matre for “Roe v. Wade Protest”
• Honorable mention, In-Depth News Story: Anushka Chakrabarti for “UCLA medical school faculty allege racially biased practices in psychiatry department”
• Honorable mention, Interactive Graphic: Lindsey Parungo, Priya Kanneboyina, Samantha Low and Ziqing Luo for “How grade distributions changed during online learning”
• Honorable mention, Newspaper Page/Spread: Maya O’Kelly for “UCLA’s hybrid learning model leaves many Bruins with concerns about fall classes”
• Honorable mention, Sports Game Story: Jared Tay for “UCLA football takes down USC in highest-scoring win of 2021 season”

Pinnacle awards:

• First place, Best Magazine News Page/Spread: Keri Chen for “The story of the spit test”
• Second place, Best Magazine Contents Page/Spread: Emily Dembinski for PRIME (Spring 2022)
• Second place, Best Magazine Entertainment Page/Spread: Trisha Patel for “Up in the air”
• Second place, Best Newspaper Opinion Page/Spread: Maya O’Kelly for “Who Are We?”
• Third place, Best Newspaper Sports Page/Spread: Lauren Ho for “Under Pressure”
• Third place, Best Special Section Cover: Katelyn Dang and Benny Zhang for “Under Pressure”
• Third place, Best Sports Columnist: Sam Settleman
• Honorable mention, Best Breaking News Coverage: Staff for “Philosophy lecturer investigation”
• Honorable mention, Best News Package: Staff
• Honorable mention, Best Newspaper Nameplate: Benny Zhang
• Honorable mention, Best Online Sports Section: Staff
• Honorable mention, Best Sports Section: Staff