Two former Kernel staff members used a mineral and a historic city neighborhood to create award-winning stories.

Out of 142 entrants in the Hearst Journalism Awards Feature Writing Competition, 2008-09 editor-in-chief Brad Luttrell won first place, and former news editor Jill Laster placed seventh.

The Hearst Journalism Awards are a national journalism award for outstanding journalism at the college level.

Luttrell’s entry, “Future of Coal,” which was published April 30 and also won the Feature Story of the Year award from the Associated Collegiate Press at the end of October.  Luttrell said winning both of those categories was a surprise.

“This past month has been unreal,” Luttrell said. “ … I thought I might have a chance to get in the top ten this year (for Hearst), but then getting the phone call saying I won was unbelievable.”

In addition to writing on the current state of coal in Kentucky, Luttrell, a May 2009 graduate, took part in “A Forum on Coal in Kentucky” on Nov. 5.  Luttrell is now working in Memphis as an editorial freelancer and plans to move back to Kentucky in mid-December.

Laster, a journalism and Spanish senior, is currently working as an intern in Puerto Rico for the Associated Press. She wrote “From the Bottom, up,” a story published on April 1 about a 140-year-old neighborhood scheduled to be demolished to make way for an extension of Newtown Pike that will cut through the Davis Bottom area and stretch to the university.

Laster, who plans on returning to the U.S. and working as an intern at the Chronicle of Higher Education in Washington, D.C., said being recognized in a competition as well-respected as the Hearst was exciting.

“You don’t hear much good news as a journalism student nowadays, with the future of journalism and news organizations so uncertain, so it’s a real morale boost even placing in a national competition,” Laster said.

Luttrell said the awards were a big honor.

“It’s the best way I could have possibly ended my time at UK,” Luttrell said.