USU JCOM Student Takes National Journalism Award

He drove 400 miles to do it, but Utah State University Journalism student Jackson Day won a national award from the Society of Professional Journalists. The awards were announced May 19, 2025.

A first-place finish is prestigious, as top schools from all over the country compete. This is not USU’s first time to place at the national level, but it is only the second time Aggies have won a first place award since 2016.

Day won in the Television Sports Reporting category for his coverage of LOTOJA, a 200-mile sanctioned bicycle race that starts pre-dawn in Logan, Utah, and ends that evening in Jackson, Wyoming. Day drove a total of more than 400 miles to capture the full race, getting great shots and capturing the essence of the competition along the way.

The story ran on the September 11, 2024 edition of A-TV News. Jackson’s report starts at about 6:42.

His Newscast class advisors, Brian Champagne and Chris Garff, are thrilled that Day got the recognition that his work deserved. Reaction from Day is hard to come by as he is
currently deployed abroad with the Utah National Guard. At last update, Day plans to return to USU to finish his Journalism degree, and then go to law school.