Riya V. Anandwala | May 5, 2009
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| Photo by Riya V. Anandwala |
| Junior Brian Spegele is one of nine winners of the Roy W. Howard Collegiate Reporting Competition. He heads to Asia June 13-27. |
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Spegele was in Canada when he received the call from the Scripps Howard Foundation that he had been selected as one of the winners. The contest awards winners with a 14-day, all expense paid tour of Japan and South Korea in mid-June.
Even the destination fits Spegele’s plans.
“I am definitely excited about being one of the winners in this competition as I have an interest in international journalism and Asia,” said Spegele, who spent last fall in China. He is working on a double major in journalism and international studies, and a minor in Chinese.
But his journalism skills landed the award. Winners are chosen based on their published or broadcast work and an essay on their interests in international affairs.
“We are pleased to be honoring Brian Spegele as a candidate who has demonstrated international journalism skills,” said Sue Porter of the foundation in a telephone interview. “He has won some prestigious journalism awards and balanced his life well as the managing editor of the IDS.”
This school year, Spegele was a managing editor at both the IDS and INside magazine. He had amassed plenty of clips as a reporter and as an intern last summer for Conde Nast Traveler.
While in China, he worked on a story about Eli Lilly & Co.’s venture capital investment plans in Shangahi, a piece the Indianapolis Business Journal later published. Spegele is fascinated with China’s economic development and its performance on the global stage.
“It is an emerging economy and so active,” he said. “I am currently writing about it for my senior capstone project in international studies department.” After he graduates, Spegele hopes to work in China for international media.
Already, he has built an impressive resume. Spegele won several prizes for this writing this spring, including awards for feature writing and in-depth stories in the Indy Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists’ contest; prizes for reporting at the SPJ Region 5 contest; and similar awards at the Indiana Collegiate Press Association’s contest.
Earlier this year, Spegle won the Poynter Scholarship, which provides a cash prize as well as an internship at the St. Petersburg Times. He’ll complete that internship just before he heads off to Asia with the other Howard winners for the trip June 13-27.
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| Photo by Riya V. Anandwala |
| IDS art director Larry Buchanan (left) and Spegele talk with other staffers about upcoming plans. Spegele has been a managing editor of both IDS and the INsider magazine. |
The trip is designed to allow winners to better understand the life of Roy W. Howard, who led Scripps Howard Newspapers from 1922-1953 and United Press International from 1912-1920. An inveterate traveler and newsman, Howard landed an interview with the emperor of Japan in 1933, the first American to do so.
The School of Journalism houses Howard’s correspondence and Dean Brad Hamm is a Howard scholar who has led the trip for the last several years.
“Students like Brian and the other eight winners go on to become much better journalists with all the knowledge they grasp through such opportunities,” said Hamm.
