Stanford Journalism students, alum among the winners and finalists of SPJ’s Mark of Excellence Awards Region 11
Current and former Stanford Journalism students have been recognized by the Society of Professional Journalists in its annual Mark of Excellence Awards for student journalists. Among the winners and finalists from Region 11 (Arizona, California, Guam, Hawaii, Nevada, and Northern Mariana Islands) are Hannah Bensen (MA 2025), Arundathi Nair (MA 2025), and Erin Edwards (MA 2024). Itzel Luna (MA 2025) was also recognized for a story she co-reported and published for the Stanford Daily.
Bensen and Nair won the General News Reporting category for their story, “How Trump’s mass deportation promise is already impacting California’s undocumented community.” The piece centers on “Alondra,” an undocumented woman in San Jose, and details the rising fear and uncertainty among immigrant communities following Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential victory and his renewed deportation pledge. Through print and audio, the reporters captured how this fear climate affects local families and schools.
Bensen said the idea for the story took shape in the aftermath of Trump’s reelection and his vow to carry out the largest mass deportation effort in U.S. history. “We wanted to explore how undocumented immigrants contribute to the Bay Area economically, culturally, and socially … we wanted to think about what the Bay Area would look like without undocumented immigrants.”
Nair was also a finalist in the Podcast (narrative) category for producing “Unrepresented: The complicated history of the 33 million missing votes in the 2024 election.” The piece explored the inability of roughly 33 million people in the United States to vote even “despite being subject to U.S. law, paying taxes, and in some cases, even serving in the military.”
In the In-Depth Reporting category, former student Edwards was a finalist for the story “‘They ask for more every year with less and less people:’ Fighter pilots face burnout.” The story examined the U.S. Navy’s pilot retention crisis, revealing a gap between official retention figures and on-the-ground realities.
Also recognized as a finalist in the same category, Luna co-reported an investigation for The Stanford Daily into allegations of intimidation and negligence involving UG2, a janitorial subcontractor at Stanford, and the union tasked with representing its workers.
