The top 20 winners in college feature writing were announced today in the 46^th annual William Randolph Hearst Foundation's Journalism Awards Program, in which more than 100 undergraduate journalism programs at colleges and universities across the nation participate.

 
First Place has been awarded to NICOLE   WILLIAMS, of Arizona State University. She will receive a $2,000 scholarship for her winning article published in The Web Devil. Arizona State University will receive a matching grant, as do the journalism departments of all scholarship winners. Nicole graduated in the spring of 2005, and consequently is not eligible to participate in the championship round, as pursuant to the program guidelines. As a result, the second place winner, ROBERT   R. SAMUELS, from Northwestern University, will receive a $1,500 scholarship and qualifies for the National Writing Championship in June, 2006.

 
Other scholarship winners are:

TRISTAN SCOTT, University of Montana, third place, $1,000 scholarship
JUSTIN FENTON, University of Maryland, fourth place, $750 scholarship
MICHAEL BECKER, Syracuse University, fifth place, $600 scholarship
MATTHEW PAIS, University of Illinois, sixth place, $500 scholarship
DAVID McRANEY, University of Southern Mississippi, seventh place, $500 scholarship
NICHOLAS R. BIRDSONG, Florida A&M University, eighth place, $500 scholarship
BRENDEN CLAWSON, University of Missouri, ninth place, $500 scholarship
PATRICK WELLEVER, Michigan State University, tenth place, $500 scholarship

 
Arizona State University placed first in the Intercollegiate Writing Competition with the highest accumulated student points from the first competition of the academic year.  It is followed by: Northwestern University; University of Montana; University of Maryland; Syracuse University; University of Illinois; University of Southern Mississippi; Florida A&M University; University of Kentucky; University of Missouri.

 
The Hearst Journalism Awards Program is conducted under the auspices of accredited schools of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication, and fully funded and administered by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation. It consists of six monthly writing, three photojournalism and four broadcast news competitions, with championship finals in all divisions. The program awards more than $400,000 in scholarships and grants annually.

Judging the writing competition this year are: Alex Martin, Assistant Managing Editor, Newsday, Melville, NY; Pat Andrews, Broward City Editor, The Herald, Pembroke Pines, FL; and Stephen Buckley, Managing Editor, The St. Petersburg Times, FL.

Students who placed among the top 20 and will receive certificates of merit are:

MARISSA STEPHENSON, University of Kansas, eleventh place
CRYSTAL LITTLE, University of Kentucky, twelfth place
TIMOTHY W. MARTIN, Eastern Illinois University, thirteenth place
RYAN BRADLEY, Northwestern University, fourteenth place-tie
LACEY KRAUSE, Texas Christian University, fourteenth place-tie
BRANDON LOWREY, Colorado State University, sixteenth place-tie
ERIKA WURST, Arizona State University, sixteenth place-tie
JANINE KAHN, University of Southern California, eighteenth place
MICHELLE KALKHOFF, University of Missouri, nineteenth place-tie
ELIZABETH K. CUNNINGHAM, Ball State University, nineteenth place-tie
MEGAN V. WINSLOW, University of Florida, nineteenth place-tie
LAUREN M. LUND, University of Arizona, nineteenth place-tie

There were 101 students from 57 universities and colleges who participated in the program's first competition of this academic year.