FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Hill magazine, the University of Arkansas’ student-run magazine was a national finalist in the Society of Professional Journalists Best Student Magazine award. Each year, SPJ selects two national finalists, or runners-up, and one winner in this category, making Hill one of the top three student magazines in the nation.

"I'm enormously proud of the work journalism students have done in putting together this magazine,” said Bret Schulte, associate professor in the School of Journalism and Strategic Media, who created the magazine in 2011 and acts as faculty advisor. “The students spend months reporting and writing and editing, taking photographs and designing the book. Also, this past year, editor Alex Gladden launched a new website and social media campaign for the magazine that does a better job of bringing our national-caliber content to local audiences.

"With this recognition by SPJ, we know Hill is a showcase for some of the best in-depth reporting and storytelling done by any students at any university, anywhere."

In its 2017 edition, Hill writers created thorough articles that explored topics including student drug use, teen pregnancy and HIV and AIDS in the South. For the first time, Hill published a photo essay, which detailed the cremation of a Tibetan man who died by self-emulation. The magazine also had its first comic, which accompanied an article about a man who converted from Islam to Christianity. For the second time, Hill pursued personal narratives, in which the writers told first-person accounts of struggles with mental illness, death and an eating disorder.

This year, the magazine also made its debut as an online publication, where writers have continued to publish their work on their website, hillmag.uark.edu; Twitter, @UA_Hill; Instagram, @HillMag; and Facebook, @hillmagazine.

This is the second consecutive year that Hill was named the best student magazine in SPJ Region 4, which is made up of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and western Tennessee.