We hosted a student journalism conference and won four awards this weekend

Over the weekend, The Ubyssey put on the eighty-second iteration of the largest annual national student journalism conference, NASH82.

Between January 9 and 12, over 250 students and professional journalists gathered in downtown Vancouver to share knowledge, trade stories and make connections. This event took place after eight months of planning by Coordinating Editor Alex Nguyen and Senior Staff Writers Thea Udwadia and Charlotte Alden.

With the theme “Empower,” attendees engaged in over 50 workshops, panels and roundtables that sought to amplify student journalists’ ability and responsibility when reporting on difficult and emerging issues like hate groups, the climate crisis, decolonization, poverty and more. At the same time, many sessions also tackled systemic issues that exist within journalism at large, such as the lack of diversity and shrinking budgets.

Beyond this programming, NASH82 also hosted to the gala for the annual John H. MacDonald (JHM) awards for excellence in student journalism, which were coordinated and judged independently from The Ubyssey. This took place on January 11, following the keynote by comedian and podcaster Ryan McMahon.

Out of seven nominations we received in December, the paper took home four JHM awards. Check out our award-winning works below.

The Arts and Culture Writing Award

“The AMS permanent art collection’s tumultuous history comes with a $4 million price tag — and you own it” by Senior Staff Writer Marissa Birnie.

The CWA Award for Labour Reporting

“The unseen labour of racialized faculty” by former Web News Editor Zak Vescera.

Prize for Digital Storytelling

“Playing probabilities: How data helped break a 35-year national championship drought” by former Sports Editor Lucy Fox and former Video Editor Marina McDuff.

Photo of the Year

“Wet’suwet’en anti-pipeline camp march” by Photo Editor Elizabeth Wang.

In short, it has been tremendously inspiring to be recognized among so many amazing student publications across Canada and we are very honoured to have been the home for the celebration of student journalism this year.

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