The Chronicle has named Andrea Fuller, a 2009 graduate of Stanford University, as the winner of its David W. Miller Award for Young Journalists.
Ms. Fuller won the $1,000 prize for three articles published in The Chronicle during her spring internship here. In making its selection, the Miller committee cited Ms. Fuller’s balanced and energetic reporting, eye for telling details, and ability to tackle a range of topics.
That range was represented by the three winning articles. In “American Universities Rush to the Front Lines in Haiti,” Ms. Fuller reached teams of nurses and surgeons sent there by several colleges to help in the aftermath of January’s magnitude 7 earthquake. Her detailed interviews painted a vivid picture of the challenges Haitians and relief workers faced.
“Experiment at Ivy Tech: a One-Year Associate Degree,” described a widely watched trial program by Indiana’s community-college system. Ms. Fuller considered the advantages the accelerated degree would offer students and community colleges struggling with surging enrollments, as well as the potential pitfalls of shortening the time-to-degree.
In “Colleges Await End of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” Ms. Fuller examined how repealing the federal policy that bans openly gay people from military service—a reform President Obama promised in his State of the Union address, in January—would affect not only gay students but also colleges, many of which have strained to reconcile their nondiscrimination policies with allowing military recruiters on campuses. If the policy were repealed, Ms. Fuller wrote, the choice between allowing recruiters and losing federal money “could disappear overnight.”
When contacted about the award, Ms. Fuller listed that story among her favorites. “Learning how the students were affected was interesting on both an intellectual level and a personal level,” she said.
Ms. Fuller, who is from Asheville, N.C., and has also held reporting internships at The New York Times and other newspapers, is looking for a job in journalism, undeterred by the weak market.
“I want to go back in time to 1990, but I don’t know if that’s an option,” she joked. “I love journalism that values critical thinking and analysis. That kind of journalism can and will survive as we move online, and I’m sure I’ll find my place in it.”
The Miller Award remembers David W. Miller, a senior writer at The Chronicle who, in 2002, at the age of 35, was killed by a drunken driver.
With the award, The Chronicle seeks to honor Mr. Miller’s insistence on responsible journalism, curiosity about people and ideas, and talent for writing. The Chronicle also hopes to recognize future generations of reporters who show those qualities. The award is given three times per year to a recent Chronicle intern, based on three articles submitted by the candidate.