Each year, the Journalism Program at Wake Forest University honors a student journalist with the Bynum G. Shaw award. The award is named for Bynum Shaw, a WFU alumnus (’48) who worked as a Washington correspondent, European correspondent and editorial writer for the Baltimore Sun following his graduation. Shaw returned to Wake Forest as a faculty member of journalism and creative writing in 1965 and at his retirement in 1993, friends, colleagues and former students contributed to a fund endowing an award in his name and memorializing him as a man who encouraged his students to think of themselves as writers and to try to publish inside and outside the college community.

The below are remarks from Phoebe Zerwick, Director of the Journalism Program, on the students being recognized for the Bynum G. Shaw prize for academic year 2023-2024. Please join us in congratulating our winner, Maddie Stopyra, and four finalists, Breanna Laws, Shaila Prasad, Bella Ortley-Guthrie and Hope Zhu!

 

 

(Prof. Phoebe Zerwick) “The annual journalism award at WFU is named for Bynum Shaw, a WFU grad who worked as a Washington correspondent, European correspondent and editorial writer for the Baltimore Sun before returning to Wake in 1965 to run the journalism and creative writing programs and to mentor students, many of whom went on to illustrious careers in journalism. 

Shaw taught in the English Department long before Journalism became an independent, interdisciplinary minor and in keeping with that tradition, we honor student journalism here at the English Department awards ceremony. Thank you for including us. I especially appreciate the support from all of you in a year when the department has come under unwanted scrutiny from student journalists. That hasn’t been easy for you or for student journalists, many of whom are English majors. Thank you.

The Bynum Shaw award this year goes to Maddie Stopyra, an English major, journalism minor and editor-in-chief at the Old Gold & Black where she has been writing since her freshman year. This summer, she is headed to an internship at Triad Business Journal. Maddie is on fire, brimming with an infectious curiosity and determination. And as I learned when I taught news literacy and observe now in her leadership at the OG&B, Maddie practices the values we teach in the classroom – to verify facts and to seek multiple voices, fairness and transparency. As Professor Justin Catanoso notes:

‘A prime example of Maddie’s newsroom leadership has been illustrated this semester in the thoughtful and careful way she and her staff have covered stories related to student protests against the war in Gaza. With Maddie’s strong editorial judgment, these stories have been thorough, fair and accurate – with at least one being a story the administration would rather have not been covered at all.’

The Journalism faculty is also awarding two finalists in recognition of such outstanding work by the OG&B.  The first goes to Breanna Laws, a communication major, journalism minor and managing editor who has also contributed beautiful work to the Magnolia Magazine and to the special edition on student mental health, produced this semester by the OG&B and 8 other college newspapers across the state. We also honor Shaila Prasad, an economics major, journalism minor and deputy editor at the OG&B, for her tireless commitment to publishing campus news on what is now a 24/7 schedule. Just a few years ago, student journalists met a weekly, Wednesday night deadline, often working into the early morning hours, to publish Thursday. The COVID epidemic gave student journalists a new sense of urgency that remains today, so that some weeks they are publishing daily, a fact that requires enormous dedication from Breanna, Shaila and the entire editorial team at the OG&B.

For outstanding work in the classroom, we recognize two additional finalists: Hope Zhu, a sociology major and journalism minor, and Bella Ortley-Guthrie, an English major and journalism minor.

Hope brings her knowledge of sociology research methods to the journalism classroom,with an uncanny ability to find public data sets and understand what they mean. She also brings insight to the human stories we tell in journalism, beautifully revealed in a student film on refugee resettlement that she co-produced in a class led last year by WFU artist in residence Ammar Basha called “Weclome (d).” The film screened at Wakeville and is headed to RiverRun Friday, 4/26, at 5:30pm. When I asked the journalism faculty for nominations, Bella’s  name came up from all her professors for her tenacity and clear prose. As Professor Barry Yeoman notes:

‘Whether she’s exploring adult illiteracy or the legacy of racial segregation in Southern churches, Bella goes deep. She researches extensively, interviews patiently, and commits to getting it right, in terms of both the subject matter and the craft of writing. Her work is painstaking, compelling to read, and always compassionate.’

Please join me in congratulating all of our finalists.”