Cronkite student wins collegiate reporting prize

Jack Highberger, a student in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, is one of nine journalism students from across the country to win the 2012 Roy W. Howard National Collegiate Reporting Competition.

Highberger and the other winning students will travel to Japan for a nine-day journalism study tour in June. The trip includes stops in the cities of Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe, where they will visit news organizations and media outlets as well as major historical sites. The students also will visit Hiroshima, site of the first use of the atomic bomb, and the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and Park.

The expenses-paid trip is sponsored by the Scripps Howard Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the E.W. Scripps Co., which owns television networks, newspapers and interactive media businesses. Mike Philipps, president and CEO of the Scripps Howard Foundation, said in a prepared statement that the trip helps address the need for student journalists to have a better understanding of international affairs.   

"A number of previous winners have chosen careers in international journalism,” Philipps said. "They often cite this journalism study trip as the motivation behind their decision."

Highberger, of Rye, Colo., was chosen based on a portfolio of his work and an essay on his interest in international affairs. A senior at the Cronkite School, he is a reporter for Cronkite News Service and has interned at The Arizona Republic and with NBC News in London.

Highberger is the fourth Cronkite student in the past four years to win the competition. Previous Cronkite winners include Dan Neligh (2011), Natalie Podgorski (2010) and Deanna Dent (2008).

The competition, established in 1984 in cooperation with the Indiana University School of Journalism, honors the memory of Roy W. Howard, who led Scripps Howard Newspapers from 1922-1953 and United Press International from 1912-1920.