Julia Billings was awarded the 2025-2026 Richard M. Uray Graduate Fellowship from
the South Carolina Broadcasters Association. Billings is a graduate student in the
CIC pursuing her Master of Mass Communication.
Johnny Chirico (sports media), broadcast journalism students Jalen Long, Karenna Porter,
Nicole Smith and Gracen Thomas, and mass communications major Carrigan Woodson were
awarded SCBA scholarships for the 2025-2026 academic year.
University of South Carolina student Alicia Caracciolo was elected international president
of the Public Relations Student Society of America at the organization’s leadership
assembly in March.
A group of 60 gathered to celebrate the photography created by students participating
in the Talmadge Moore LeGrand Photojournalism Workshop led by instructor Renée Ittner-McManus.
School of Journalism and Mass communications students received five first-place awards
and four finalist awards in the 2024 Region 3 Mark of Excellence competition sponsored
by the Society of Professional Journalists.
The Southeast Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences honored
four USC students for work created in the broadcast capstone course, Carolina News.
Students from the School of Journalism and Mass Communications garnered 10 awards
at the AEJMC internationally competitive Festival of Visual & Interactive Media or
"VIM Fest" awards
Seven students from the University of South Carolina School of Journalism and Mass
Communications took top honors in a recent statewide contest for collegiate journalists.
Advertising and visual communications students from the School of Journalism and Mass
Communications earned 25 American Advertising Federation ADDY Awards from the Midland's
Chapter. The awards were presented at the chapter's "Under the Stars" gala on Feb.
22.
BEA Festival of Media Arts awards announced
The Broadcast Education Association Festival of Media Art has announced that two SJMC
students have earned national recognition for work produced for The Carolina News. The awards will be presented at the annual conference in Las Vegas in April.
Zane Heinlein - TV Short Feature: Award of Excellence
More Gen-Z students are enrolling in trade schools, helping fill a skilled worker
shortage, and vocational programs nationwide are seeing record enrollment. Zane Heinlein
was the photographer and reporter for this story.
Elizabeth Martinez was named student journalist of the year.
Seven students from the broadcast journalism capstone course Carolina News were honored by the Radio Television Digital News Association of the Carolinas with
top awards in several categories.
The students garnered four first-place awards and three second place awards.
Elizabeth Martinez, who graduated in May 2024 and is now a multimedia content producer
for Spectrum News in Greenville, South Carolina, was named the Haney Howell Student
Journalist of the Year.
Senior visual communications major and Honors College student Callie Hribar brought
home top honors in the logo design competition sponsored by the Association for Education
in Journalism and Mass Communication.
With the first place win, Hribar received a $250 cash prize, and her logo will be
featured on all branded ads, signage and promotional material during the 2025 AEJMC
conference in San Francisco. Hribar submitted her entry this spring as part of an
assignment in the Multimedia for Visual Communications course taught by associate
professor Van Kornegay.
2025-2026 CIC Internal Funding Program for Research and Creative Scholarship
Student Projects
Empowering Black Professionals with Terminal Degrees Through Digital Media Kiera O’Shea (faculty advisor: Bryan Jenkins) Award amount: $500
Graduate Student Awards
Ertan Ağaoğlu
2024 Graduate Student Excellence in Teaching Award, University of South Carolina,
Columbia, SC.
Yu (Cindy) Chen
2024 Bryce Rucker Graduate Student Excellence in Research Award, University of South
Carolina, Columbia, SC.
Shamira McCray
2024 Graduate Student Excellence in Teaching Award, University of South Carolina,
Columbia, SC.
2025-2026 Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications Mass Communication
and Society Division Diversity and Inclusion Career Development Fellow
Challenge the conventional. Create the exceptional. No Limits.