Journalism student wins investigative reporting award through IowaWatch

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Sarah Hadley

University of Iowa student Sarah Hadley is the 2014 recipient of the annual IowaWatch/Fotini Perlmutter Undergraduate Student Award for outstanding investigative reporting. Hadley was the winner of the 2013 award as well.

A Cedar Rapids native, Hadley is now a senior at the School of Journalism & Mass Communication in the UI College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. She is an assistant editor with the Iowa Center for Public Affairs Journalism (IowaWatch.org) and a 2014-15 Iowa Center for Research by Undergraduates fellow. She has also previously written for the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, as a summer intern.

Hadley also recently won a Society of Professional Journalists’ regional Mark of Excellence award for a story she wrote for IowaWatch in 2013, “Matter of Seconds: Tougher Farm Safety Regulation Hard to Come By in Iowa.”

The Iowa Center for Public Affairs Journalism is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news service that collaborates with Iowa media partners to produce investigative and explanatory journalism, and trains college students to do this kind of work at a professional and ethical level. It was founded in 2010 by a UI School of Journalism & Mass Communication faculty member and PhD student. IowaWatch frequently publishes work by UI students, particularly students of the journalism school and other departments within the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. 

The University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts and Sciences offers about 70 majors across the humanities; fine, performing and literary arts; natural and mathematical sciences; social and behavioral sciences; and communication disciplines. About 15,000 undergraduate and nearly 2,000 graduate students study each year in the college’s 37 departments, led by faculty at the forefront of teaching and research in their disciplines. The college teaches all Iowa undergraduates through the college's general education program, CLAS CORE. About 80 percent of all Iowa undergraduates begin their academic journey in CLAS. The college confers about 60 percent of the university's bachelor's degrees each academic year.