Nyhan Award
The David Nyhan Student Journalism Award
The David Nyhan Student Journalism Award was established in 2005 by the Center on Media and Society to honor political columnist David Nyhan. It recognizes a student or students each year who display the skills, tenacity, ethics and temperament to serve the public well as a journalist. It rewards character as well as talent, potential as well as performance to date. The award is funded by voluntary donations. The winners are selected by the Communication Studies Program at UMass Boston, headed by Kenneth Lachlan.
David Nyhan was a newspaperman in Boston for more than 30 years. Beyond being a respected writer, he was a beloved man who connected with people from all walks of life. He was loved for his honesty, humor, fairness, kindness and strength.
David Nyhan helped to found the Center on Media and Society at UMass Boston shortly before his untimely death in January 2005. To honor David Nyhan and his principles, the center created an award for students at UMass Boston and UMass Amherst who are interested in going into journalism.
The award honors a student each year who displays the skills, tenacity, ethics and temperament to serve the public well as a journalist. It rewards character as well as talent; potential as well as performance to date. Students who win this award are expected to work ethically and energetically, with persistence but also with generosity to others.
The annual award consists of a cash prize and a certificate. The award is funded by voluntary donations. Students are selected by a committee appointed by the Center on Media and Society at UMass Boston. The first award was given in the spring of 2005. A fundraising party at the UMass Club in downtown Boston in April 2005, spearheaded by Paul McDermott and David's son Nick Nyhan, helped to endow the award.
Meet Our Journalism Award Winners
Ryan Thomas is an English major with a concentration in Professional Writing. He is the Sports Editor at UMass Boston's The Mass Media and has interned at the Boston Globe as a “Sport Hawk,” writing nightly roundups of high school games and, more recently, covering track and field events and swim meets for the Globe. He intends to go on to make a career as a sports journalist.
Kelly Cahill is a graduate of Plymouth North High School. She concluded her college career with two internships. In the fall, at Project Bread, she worked with numerous publications and newspapers in efforts to get the word out about the non-profit organization. This semester, she has worked as a script-writer and teleprompter operator for New England Cable News, on the 4:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. shift. “At first it was a little bit nerve wracking,” she says. Kelly intends to work as a news writer or broadcast journalist. “Now I know where I’m headed,” she says.
Previous Winners
2008 Winners: Olesia Plokii and Faye Woffenden-Phillips
2007 Winners: Neetzan Zimmerman and Ana Carolina Gomez
2006 Winner: Demetra Chornovas
2005 Award Winners: Gintautas Dumcius and Kristen DeOliveira