A 23-year old college student studying journalism at the graduate school received the Pulitzer Prize of 2018

On April 16, 2018 local time, it is considered America's most prestigious award for coveragePulitzer PrizeAward winner was announced at the Columbia University Journalism Graduate School, which runs the award. The moment of announcement that Mariel · Padilla, 23-year-old who studied journalism at the same school, that he received one "local news" category in that division did not anticipate his own award at all was a little He seems to have been lecturing in the classroom on the second floor.

Meet the journalism student who found out she won a Pulitzer in class - Columbia Journalism Review
https://www.cjr.org/the_profile/mariel-padilla-pulizter-cincinnnati.php

Pulitzer Prize winners will be announced in a room called the "World Room" at Columbia University Journalism School. At the time when many reporters packed up waiting for the announcement of the winners, Mr. Padilla received a lecture on Professor with a classmate in the classroom just above. Mr. Padilla, who moved from Ohio to New York with Columbia University, was very excited about the Pulitzer Prize being announced at the school where she was enrolled, because he himself studied journalism. Padilla who looks back at that moment does not think that he himself won the Pulitzer Prize, he told his acquaintance "It's amazing! I am in the same building as the Pulitzer Prize launch site!" It seems that it was so.

Because he was such Mr. Padilla, he did not even know that he himself was a candidate for the Pulitzer Prize. Then a message from a friend arrived on Padilla 's screen that memorized the content of the lecture on a notebook PC, "A Pulitzer Prize was awarded, an article by Enquirer' s opioid was awarded".


"Enquirer" written in the message is a newspaper media "The Cincinnati Enquirer" who worked as an intern before Padilla came to Columbia University. While I was enrolled at the University of Miami in Ohio, I got coverageDrug crimeWhenThe impact on that childIt seems that they posted articles about.

Mr. Padilla of the time belonged to crime reporting team concerning heroin which Enquirer was putting power and sentenced to the local prison every morning and documents of inmates who were arrested in connection with medical drug "opioid" We were assigned tasks to investigate. Mr. Padilla himself developed a database so that its data could be used by reporters of Enquirer himself, and created a mechanism to search the time, place, and contents of charges.

Enquirer 's reporter was indeed working up for 24 hours, but there was a limit to the content that can be covered by the interview. It is said that Padilla's database was useful for reporters at that time. Following such total coverage, The Cincinnati Enquirer published an article called "Heroin in Cincinnati: This is what an epidemic looks like" (heroin in Cincinnati: current situation of spreading) in September 2017. It seems that this triggered discussion in the whole country.

Heroin in Cincinnati: This is what an epidemic looks like - Cincinnati.com
https://www.cincinnati.com/pages/interactives/seven-days-of-heroin-epidemic-cincinnati/

Mr. Padilla, who pursued the intern, moved to New York 800 km from Ohio and lived in a new environment, he said that Enquirer's article was off his head. It seems he did not notice that the article was listed as a candidate for the Pulitzer Prize. Even when Enquirer was told what he was awarded, he did not think he had anything to do with himself. From a friend who sent the message at the beginning I got a message saying "I knew that you had Pulitzer, how old is 23?"


But what decided was the message "Congratulations, you are the Pulitzer Prize Winner" from Bob Strikeley, a reporter who worked together at Enquirer! It seems that he finally was convinced that he won the award.


It was shocking, I thought that my eyes were wide open, probably my mouth was open, but in the classroom the professor was lecturing and I could not make a noise. " Padilla looking back. However, even in the cell phone prohibited classroom, the announcement that classmates won the Pulitzer Prize on the notebook PC screen that the student has is gradually blown down. After that, at the break time of the class finally the classmate got up and it seems that spreading Mr. Padilla 's award.

However, Professor Seguini, who was in charge of the lecture, learned of the award because it was after the lecture was finished, "The lecture was as usual, I did not notice that something is happening at all. Everyone did not make a loud voice? If I were myself, I would make a big fuss and ruin the lesson! But it is that big! That is a comment on the student's Pulitzer winner It is.

A student who is studying journalism receives the Pulitzer Prize is a big event that a band belonging to the light music section of the school receives the Grammy award. Mr. Padilla's classmate seems to be jokingly saying "Is it OK even if I can quit school?" (Laugh), but that Mr. Padilla is not going to do that at all. About what I was able to receive as a member of Enquirer "Looks, I am a winner of the Pulitzer Prize, but I am very excited for Enquirer adding me as one of the authors of the article. I think that I have to learn a lot more, and that is why I think that I received a shock when I heard the news of the award, I still can not believe it. "

Nonetheless, it is also certain that this award was due to Padilla's careful work being appreciated, Segnini said, "She has the ability to blend journalism and technology that is not provided by so many people She knows how to find a story from the data and she can do the right question, which is very important, "she says about Mr. Padilla's qualities.