The below are remarks from Ivan Weiss, Interim-Director of the Journalism Program at WFU, and Phoebe Zerwick, Director of the Journalism Program, on the students being recognized for the Bynum G. Shaw prize this year. Please join us in congratulating our winner, Christa Dutton, and finalists, Aine Pierre and Will Zimmerman!

(Prof. Ivan Weiss) “A few weeks ago, as many of you know, my wife Stephanie and I had a daughter. Along with having a healthy baby that doesn’t cry too much, I’ve been blessed with a mother who came to town for a couple weeks just to help us – and she’s been invaluable. But there’s one downside to her visit, and that is my mom’s predilection to watch cable news… endlessly. I won’t say what station. Politics isn’t the problem. It’s the manner of cable news –  the endlessness of it, the repetition of stories, the voices that run in and out of each other. After a couple minutes, I start losing track of where and who I am.

These days in the world that feeling comes up a lot for me – it’s that feeling after scrolling for a couple minutes through social media posts or aggregate news sites, where you get a bounty of content. Some of the material may be great, other articles…not so much. No matter the quality, there’s something alienating about the way it’s all thrown together. 

I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know Christa Dutton, Aine Pierre, and others at the Old Gold & Black this semester, as I’ve filled in for Professor Zerwick as their advisor. And what has struck me about the journalists of the Old Gold & Black is that the work they do – and the paper as a whole – has the opposite feel. It’s personal and filled with care. It’s thoughtful. It nourishes the campus. I come away after reading an article knowing more about the world and my place in it.

In the past year the OG&B has explored important issues like the transition from one presidential administration to another, local housing, the effect of our economy on students, reproductive rights, affirmative action, gun violence – things that are of vital importance to their readers. But they’ve done it unfailingly with a human touch. 

I’ve gotten some peaks behind the editorial curtain, and from one I’ve seen, they listen to each other’s points of view, they dialog, and they think through the gravity of what it means to publish an article about people who share their world.

The OG&B has been led this year by Christa Dutton, the chief editor of the paper and the recipient of this year’s Bynum Shaw award in journalism. Christa was helped in her task by the paper’s online managing editor Aine Pierre, one of two finalists for the award. The other finalist is Will Zimmerman, a one-time sports editor and writer at the OG&B.

That care and personal touch, making sure everything is meaningful and adds to the story, is a central part the Journalism Program. It is what all the faculty strive to give students, each in our own way. I’m going to pass the mic over now to Phoebe Zerwick, the Director of Journalism here who is technically on leave, and she’ll talk more about Christa and Aine, and then I’ll come back on to pass on some words about Will Zimmerman.”

(Prof. Phoebe Zerwick) “I am thrilled to honor Christa Dutton, English major, Journalism minor and editor-in-chief of the OG&B, with the Bynum Shaw prize. 

I met Christa in my first-year writing class, first on Zoom and then during outdoor office hours on Manchester Plaza, and encouraged her to pursue writing, either in Journalism, creative writing or the interdisciplinary writing minor. We are fortunate at Wake that she chose Journalism and that she is now leading the OG&B, which plays such a vital role informing our campus, often on subjects those in power would rather keep quiet.

Christa is a clear and graceful writer, a relentless reporter, and a collaborative leader, dedicated to transparency, accuracy and fairness. In my Community Journalism [class], we covered local politics, a subject she was unfamiliar with, yet she she ended up writing one of the most astute stories I saw anywhere on how both parties were appealing to fear to recruit poll workers. 

At the OG&B, Christa has written about such a wide range of subjects, many of them controversial. She was part of the news team that covered the Weaver Fire on deadline. She also wrote about the medical student who tweeted about a patient, a story that ended up on right-wing media. She is equally adept at long-form journalism. Last year, she wrote about the decision by a Wake alum when pregnant with twins to abort one of the fetuses that was failing to thrive to save the other. And just this week, she published a magazine-length piece about the collection of contemporary art that’s purchased by Wake students, a piece that already has me paying closer attention to the artwork hanging in Reynolda Hall. This summer, she is headed to Triad Business Journal for a summer internship, a job that I am confident will launch a rich career in journalism. Please join me in congratulating Christa.”

(Prof. Phoebe Zerwick) “Aine [Pierre] brings so much energy, intelligence, compassion, and courage to her journalism studies and to the OG&B that it’s hard for me to know where to begin, except to say that she is almost always two or three steps ahead of me. In a typical class session in my Community Journalism class, she might challenge me on displaying bias, share resources with another student, and then volunteer for the most difficult assignment. Many of you may not know Aine as she is a History major and double minor in classics and sociology, and in the past year, much of her work at the OG&B has been behind the scenes as online managing editor. As the OG&B moves away from its print edition to become a 24/7 news operation, Aine’s the one who edits, often reports, and posts all stories that appear on the website, which means that she is essentially working at a student journalism all the time. It’s her insistence on seeing stories from multiple perspectives and her courage in pursuing those perspectives that most inspires me. As a second-year student, Aine wrote a brave and moving column about her decision to become transgender. [The below is an excerpt from Aine’s column.]

“When you have a marginalized identity (or multiple), you realize that a lot of people are just going to hate you for who you are. You learn about the atrocities committed on your ancestors, and you pray that the world has changed, but also that you can do even more to change it. My identities are complicated, though; neither is always obvious.

You may be able to tell I’m Jewish by my curly hair or my affinity for humming Jewish prayers, but if you have no reference point, you might pass me by. If I’m presenting masculine or if I’m passing, you may not realize that I am a woman with a penis.

So, I’m often in a period of limbo, where I don’t know if people are nice — or at least, not hostile — to me because they genuinely accept me or because they do not know who I am in relation to society. As if my social anxiety weren’t bad enough.

I suspect I’ll live my entire life with that fear. But, I will also live my entire life with the joy that comes from my trans siblings’ camaraderie — the allies with whom I fight for a better world and most importantly, the knowledge that I have survived 100% of my worst days.”

That bravery, and joy, is infectious, at the OB&B and in the way she works with her classmates. It is a pleasure to honor Aine as a finalist for the Bynum Shaw prize.”

(Prof. Ivan Weiss) “I’m happy to honor Will Zimmerman as a finalist for this year’s Bynum Shaw Award. Will has worked in journalism and narrative storytelling in various forms consistently during his years at Wake. He even crafted his own interdisciplinary studies major to be able to take exactly the courses he wanted to. He was a standout student in my audio storytelling class, with a moving evocative writing style and a clear devotion to craft. I know one of the most meaningful experiences for him was Professor Yeoman’s magazine writing class. Professor Yeoman couldn’t be here today, and so I’ll read some words he wrote about Will:

“Will Zimmerman is talented across media and genres: as a photographer, a sportswriter, and a filmmaker whose documentary A Story About Food (And Everything But) was selected to run in the 2022 Riverrun International Film Festival. He has served as both sports editor and online managing editor for the OG&B. Will’s standout talent, thought, is long-form journalism—the ability to put human faces on complex issues and tell stories with depth, compassion, and lyricism. His article “Rooted in East Winston,” published last fall by The Assembly, profiled a former incarcerated “guerilla farmer” named Michael Banner who has cultivated gardens in neighborhoods where fresh food is not readily available. Will’s article encompassed more than one man’s quest; he also pulled back the lens to explore both the causes of food insecurity and local policy solutions.”

Just to add to that, Will started that story, Rooted in East Winston, in his intro to journalism class, as I understand it, and he continued it in my audio storytelling class, before honing it in Professor Yeoman’s magazine writing class and honing it even moreso for The Assembly. Three years and three classes went into that article – that is dedication. In class, I could see how seriously Will took his work, his devotion to his subject and his openness to let the story unfold over time. I’m happy to honor will as a finalist for the Bynum Shaw prize.”