Miami University students were recognized for their 2023 work in journalism, winning a record-number 26 awards at the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) regional competition. Fourteen were first-place winners in the annual regional Mark of Excellence (MOE) competition sponsored by the Society of Professional Journalists, and 12 were MOE finalists.

“Our students are doing important, thoughtful reporting on the communities they cover during a time of heightened mistrust of news media,” said Rosemary Pennington, associate professor of Media, Journalism, and Film, and coordinator of journalism. “The journalism faculty is proud of all they have accomplished and we're thrilled their work has been recognized in this way by SPJ."

First-place Mark of Excellence winners:

• Corbin Gwaltney Award for Best All-Around Student Newspaper (Large 10,000+) – The Miami Student led by editor Sean Scott.
• Best Use of Multimedia – Ryann Beaschler on Medium.com that was part of a multimedia journalism class taught by Rosemary Pennington.
• Breaking New Reporting – a story by Sean Scott and Alice Momany of The Miami Student about the OPD use of force investigation.
• Campus Reporting – for stories by Sean Scott of The Miami Student about cultural diversity in Miami performing groups and other columns.
• Cultural Criticism – Lily Wahl of The Miami Student for her literary reviews.
• Data Visualization – Sean Scott and Luke Macy of The Miami Student for maps of Butler County turnout for issues 1 and 2.
• Editorial/Opinion Writing – Ava Kalina of The Miami Student for “Let’s Talk about Methane.”
• Feature Writing (Large 10,000+) – Lily Wahl and Taylor Stumbaugh of The Miami Student for  “Miami …. Merged.”
• Food/Restaurant Journalism – Sean Scott and Devin Ankeney of The Miami Student for “We can't cook.”
• General News Reporting (Large 10,000+) – Morgan Schneider of Oxford Stories on com for a story she did for the multimedia journalism course taught by Rosemary Pennington titled “In East Palestine, life inches towards normal.”
• Photo Essay/Slideshow – Sarah Frosch of The Miami Student for her photographs of the Walter E. Havighurst special collections.
• Science/Environment/Climate Reporting – Austin Smith of The Miami Student for “Saving balloons worth of money with helium reclamation.”
• Sports Writing (Large 10,000+) – Jack Schmelzinger of The Miami Student for “Ryland Zaborowski doesn’t let autism stop him from crushing baseballs.”
• Sports Photography – Pearl Zajbel for her photo in the Oxford Observer titled “Talawanda Track & Field sprints toward SWOC tournament” taken for a sports journalism class taught by Joe Sampson.

  Mark of Excellence finalists:

• Best Affiliated Website – The Miami Student.
• Best Ongoing Student Magazine – UP Magazine.
• Best Use of Multimedia – Jessica Opfer for her story on Medium as part of the multimedia journalism course taught by Rosemary Pennington.
• Campus Reporting – Anastasija Mladenovska of The Miami Student for her story titled “The Kingdom of air purifiers.”
• Podcast (Conversational) – Raquel Hirsch and Olivia Patel of The Miami Student for )People and Policies.
• Cultural Criticism – Luke Macy of The Miami Student for film reviews.
• Cultural Criticism – Stella Powers of The Miami Student for critiques on film and television.
• Feature writing (Large 10,000+)  -- Ryann Beaschler of The Miami Student for “Love birds, peony fields and chocolate hearts: Two professors’ marriage story.”
• General News Reporting (Large 10,000+) – Evan Stefanik of The Miami Student for “Examining Miami's drinking culture.”
• In-depth Reporting (Large 10,000+) – Kasey Turman of The Miami Student for “‘This is absolutely heartbreaking’: Miami considers eliminating majors in the humanities.”
• Science/Environment/Climate Reporting – Sarah Kennel of The Miami Student for “Local voices spread secondhand love.”
• Sport Photography – Jessica Monahan of The Miami Student for “Miami brings home Victory Bell for the first time since 2005.”