The Long Island Advocate earned 12 honors in the 2025 Press Club of Long Island Media Awards, including first-place honors for College Reporter of the Year, Video Sports Package, Video News Package, Race and Diversity, and Travel Writing.
Additionally, The Advocate was awarded second place for Best College News Website.
Honors were bestowed in a ceremony at the Fox Hollow in Woodbury June 5.
Scott Brinton, assistant professor of journalism, advises The Advocate. All winning student entries were produced in Brinton’s Advanced Reporting or Digital and Mobile Journalism classes, as well as part of an Advocate partnership with WRHU Radio Hofstra University. Brinton received honors in the Pro Division for Travel Writing and Editorial/Commentary Writing.
The PCLI competition is judged annually by an out-of-state press association. PCLI is a chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. For a full list of this year’s winning entries, click here.
Here is a rundown of this year’s crop of Advocate awards:
Long Island Advocate reporter Olivia Hillestad and Advocate editor and researcher Melinda Rolls took first and second place for College Newspaper Reporter of the Year, respectively. Third place went to Stony Brook University’s Mariam Guirgis. Judges wrote: “EXTREMELY tight, close competition among some outstanding student journalists. Some superb work in this category!” Here are Hillestad and Rolls’ entries:
Olivia Hillestad
Melinda Rolls
Annie MacKeigan, First Place, Race and Diversity
Rachel Hajec, First Place, Video News Package
Michael Malaszczyk, First Place, Video Sports Package
Camryn Bowden, Second Place, Radio Diversity, Advocate and WRHU
Camryn Bowden, Second Place, Radio Feature Story, and Third Place, Radio Diversity, Advocate and WRHU
Gabrielle Yanovitz, Julia Capitelli, Urvi Gandhi, Michael Zavatsky, Third Place, Investigative Reporting
Scott Brinton, First Place, Travel Writing
Second Place, Editorial/Commentary Writing
