UFCJC alumni receive one second place and three finalist honors at 2025-26 Hearst Journalism Awards National Championship
University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications (UFCJC) May 2026 Journalism graduates Bernie Montas, Juan Carlos Chaoui, Nicole Borman and Jessica Garcette were among 28 finalists from across the U.S. competing in the 66th annual Hearst National Journalism Awards Championship from May 30 – June 5 in San Francisco.
The journalists spent the week in San Francisco producing video pieces, multimedia stories and articles which would be evaluated by the program judges to determine the winners. Finalists were vying for awards of up to $10,000 for the work produced at the National Championship.
In the Television competition, Montas received second place and a $7,500 award. Chaoui was selected as a finalist and received a $1,500 award. They were asked to produce a story on the following topic: “AI – It impacts everything- from the way we live, to business, education, healthcare, transportation, jobs. Name any category and there’s an Artificial Intelligence conversation taking place. Even in news reporting. San Francisco and the Bay Area were at the forefront of the era of personal technology. And they are on the cutting edge again. Find a local story related to AI.”
In the Multimedia category, Borman was a finalist and received $1,500. She was tasked with producing a piece on the following prompt: “Survival – Survival means different things to different people. Often, it’s not what we expect.”
Garcette was named a finalist in the Writing competition. Her charge was to write two articles: a news story from an interview with Mr. Frank Bennack, Executive Vice Chairman & Former CEO of the Hearst Corporation, and an article about the following prompt: “Has San Francisco Really Recovered from the Pandemic?” She also received a $1,500 award.
The judges reviewed the finalists’ work in the morning of June 4, and winners were announced that evening at the Championship awards ceremony held in the Gold Ballroom of San Francisco’s Palace hotel.
The competition was the culmination of the 2025-2026 monthly competitions in writing, photojournalism, audio, television, multimedia and podcast competitions open to 104 Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) accredited journalism schools across the country.
Category: AI at CJC News, Alumni News, College News, Student News
Tagged: 2025-26 Hearst Journalism Awards Bernie Montas Harrison Hove Hearst National Journalism Awards Championship Jessica Garcete Juan Carlos Chaoui Nicole Borman Student Awards
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