UCLA journalists on UWire 100 list

UWire, an online college journalism association, recently released a list of the 100 most promising student journalists in the country, including two Daily Bruin staff members.

Jessica Chou, Daily Bruin photographer and reporter, and Robert Faturechi, the Daily Bruin News enterprise editor, both made the UWire 100 best student journalists list.

Both graduating seniors, Chou and Faturechi were nominated by several colleagues at the Daily Bruin.

Two of Chou’s stories are highlighted on the UWire Web site.

Chou’s story “Struggling with noncitizen status,” which revealed the hardships prevalent in the lives of undocumented immigrant students at UCLA, was highlighted on the Web site.

And Chou’s photography ““ photo illustrations that accompanied Daily Bruin senior staff reporter Julia Erlandson’s story, “Student groups seek veteran aid,” about the effects of the Iraq War ““ were also presented to UWire at the time of nomination.

Three of Faturechi’s stories were also chosen. These included “Donations influence admissions,” which revealed an admissions scandal in the UCLA School of Dentistry, “Fro-yo face-off,” which gave a closer look at the multiple frozen yogurt shops in Westwood and “Home is where you hang your Warhol,” which described Chancellor Gene Block’s adjustment to living in the chancellor’s residence.

Chou was nominated by Daily Bruin photography editor Dharmishta Rood.

“I had gotten the e-mail from UWire that you could nominate people for their work as photojournalists,” Rood said.

“I had seen Jessica’s work and her photo essay on undocumented students at UCLA, and I thought she should be recognized for it.”

Saba Riazati, editor-in-chief of the Daily Bruin, also nominated Chou for the UWire 100 top college journalists list independently of Rood, Riazati said.

Faturechi was nominated by Riazati and by Daily Bruin sports editor Sam Allen.

Chou and Faturechi were pleasantly surprised after receiving their nominations, chosen out of a large pool of more than 500 student nominations, according to the UWire Web site.

“I thought it was actually really nice to be recognized nationally,” Chou said.

“I realized I was chosen out of a pool of 400 or 500 students, and to hear Robert had also been nominated was really cool.”

Faturechi said that despite earning such an honor, he is still determined to continually improve his skills as a journalist.

“It’s an honor, but I know a lot of the credit goes to other Daily Bruin staffers and staffers from the past who I’m constantly learning from,” Faturechi said. “But it was definitely a real honor and very flattering.”

The list was compiled by UWire’s seven-person panel of editors and managers, according to the UWire Web site.

Nominations were accepted from colleagues, professors, mentors, professionals and other supporters, and in total, UWire received nominations for candidates at 132 schools.

UWire is a 14-year-old college journalism association that offers young journalists a space to present their work and nonstudent visitors a place to discover user-generated content, according to the site.

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