The University of Montana School of Journalism capped one of its most successful seasons in the Hearst Journalism Awards Program when recent graduate Maddie McCuddy won the National Photojournalism Championship in San Francisco on June 4, adding a $10,000 prize to an already banner year for the program.
McCuddy’s national championship title, combined with UM’s first-place finish in the Intercollegiate Photojournalism Competition and a 10th-place overall ranking among the 104 accredited programs nationwide, marks one of the strongest performances in the school’s history in the competition, often called the “Pulitzers of college journalism.”
Also competing at the national championships in San Francisco, recent UM graduate Claire Bernard earned second place in the National Writing Championship, winning a $7,500 award. Bernard had earlier won first place in the Personality and Profile Writing Competition during the regular season for her profile “Nine hundred seventy-five days.”
After the championships, Bernard will begin a prestigious internship with Bloomberg News in Washington, D.C.
“If you would have told me when I was graduating high school that at the end of college, I’d be going to write for a massive publication in D.C., I would’ve said, ‘No way,’” said Bernard, who grew up in Rapid City, South Dakota. “But then I think back to the incredible support I’ve received from the University of Montana. I’ve had so many people supporting me along the way.”
McCuddy’s path to the national title ran through months of competition against the nation’s best undergraduate photojournalists. She qualified for the national championships with a portfolio that drew on personal projects, an internship at the Missoulian newspaper and images produced at the highly competitive Mountain Workshops in Kentucky.
“I really have this curiosity with people,” said McCuddy, who is from La Center, Washington. “I feel like having a camera allows me to talk to people and be curious and ask questions in a very candid way.”
During the full 2025-26 season, 1,353 entries were submitted from students at 104 accredited journalism programs. UM’s No. 10 overall finish earned the school an Overall Intercollegiate trophy. The first-place Intercollegiate Photojournalism finish brought an additional $10,000 award to UM’s journalism school from the William Randolph Hearst Foundation.
“This is an extraordinary moment for our program,” said Lee Banville, director of the UM School of Journalism. “Maddie winning the national championship and Claire finishing second in the country for writing is just remarkable. It speaks to the talent of our students and to a faculty that pushes them to do their very best work.”
The Hearst Journalism Awards Program has been fully funded and administered by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation for 66 years. The program awards up to $700,000 annually in scholarships, grants and stipends, and is open to undergraduate journalism students at ACEJMC-accredited programs nationwide.
The UM School of Journalism is one of the nation’s oldest and most respected journalism programs. Home to the Native News Honors Project, the Montana Media Lab, Student Documentary Unit, and Covering the Legislature program, the school prepares students for careers across the full spectrum of modern journalism. Learn more at umt.edu/journalism.
By: UM News