UCD student wins journalism award
The Oxygen Student Media Awards, or Smedias as they have become popularly known, took place at a function in Dublin’s Spirit nightclub.
Awards were given in 25 categories, covering newspapers, radio programmes, television documentaries and websites produced by student journalists in the last 12 months.
Sorcha was named Student Journalist of the Year for the work she produced for UCD’s University Observer.
Sorcha was appointed editor of the newspaper last autumn, and, in addition to her editing duties, regularly broke exclusive stories on matters related to university life.
Irish Examiner editor Tim Vaughan, who adjudicated the category, said the calibre of work by the nominees had made selecting a winner a difficult task.
“However, Sorcha’s work was truly outstanding and she fully merited the award,” Mr Vaughan said.
“I look forward to Sorcha breaking many more excellent stories in her future career as a journalist.”
There was double celebration for Sorcha when the University Observer won the Newspaper of the Year award.
In all, it was an excellent night for UCD, which emerged as the biggest winner, taking six of the 25 categories.
Colman Byrne, managing director of Oxygen.ie, Ireland’s largest student website which organises the annual awards, said it was hugely encouraging to see the high standards of the entrants.
“The students who entered these awards will be the journalists of the future,” he said.
