09.12.11
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EWC Alumna Wins Excellence in Journalism Awards

Heidi Chang at SPJ Hawaii Awards June 24 2011

(Heidi Chang at the Society of Professional Journalists Awards celebration in Honolulu, June 2011.)

EWC media alumna and multimedia journalist, Heidi Chang (Hong Kong Journalism Fellow 2003), recently won the two highest honors for radio news and feature reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists Hawaii Chapter. Hawaii’s journalism community turned out to celebrate some of its best work produced statewide at its annual Excellence in Journalism Awards dinner in Honolulu on June 24, 2011. The awards recognized work produced in 2010.

Heidi won a first-place award for her story about Father Damien of Molokai: Hawaii’s First Saint, which aired nationally on AARP Radio’s “Prime Time Postscript.”  (It tells the story of Father Damien and his work with Hansen’s disease patients on Molokai. She interviewed three people whose lives were touched by his actions and example.)

Heidi also won a first-place award for her story about the 40th annual Ukulele Festival in Hawaii, which aired on Public Radio International’s “The World.” (She produced the radio story, and a video of Jake Shimabukuro playing ukulele and took all the photos featured in the photo gallery.)

Society of Professional Journalists President Stirling Morita says: “It’s always good to promote the best reporting in the state to make sure the standards are kept high, as the number of jobs in journalism decline, and the number of traditional media outlets shrink.”

Heidi is currently working on an oral history project with the Hawaii Council for the Humanities to help preserve the legacy of some of the last remaining patients in Kalaupapa. If you’re interested in collaborating or contributing in some way, please contact Heidi at: Heidi@HeidiChang.com.

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