Hannah Potes, a JMC senior photojournalism major, won fifth place in the recent photojournalism competition II of the Hearst Journalism Awards Program.
With this ranking, Potes becomes the first JMC photojournalism student to place three times in the top 10 of the Hearst photography competition. In 2010 and 2011, Potes placed seventh in the Hearst news/feature/portrait competition.
“Hannah has been knocking on the Hearst door for the last three years, and she keeps placing higher every year. This year’s award is affirmation that she has been on the right track, doing the right things,” said Dave LaBelle, coordinator of JMC’s photojournalism program.
Potes, who is also pursuing a degree in Spanish, earned a $1,000 scholarship in this year’s picture story/series competition for "Beyond the Burns," the moving photographic account of Christopher Klavon, a Michigan man who lost his wife and suffered severe burns to over 75 percent of his body when his car was struck by a drunk driver 22 years ago. Her photos capture the depth of Klavon’s injuries, his healing process and his work today in educating first-time drunk-driving offenders and starting Great Lakes Burn Camp for Michigan-area burn survivors.
Potes’ work was selected from 61 entries submitted from 38 schools nationwide. The top winners, along with the top finalists in competition I and two overall highest scorers, will submit additional photos for the semi-final round of judging in May. Six finalists will be chosen from that round to compete in the program's National Photojournalism Championship, along with writing, broadcast and multimedia finalists.
The Hearst Journalism Awards Program, now in its 53rd year, consists of five monthly writing competitions, two photojournalism competitions, one radio and two TV broadcast news competitions and four multimedia competitions, with Championship finals in all divisions. The Program awards up to $500,000 in scholarships and grants annually.