Jennifer Amur, chosen her senior year at the University of Missouri, impressed the judges with an eloquent essay in which she wrote about visiting Turkey, not only because it is her father’s homeland, but because she wanted to see the city in which an Armenian journalist was killed because of what he wrote.
She then tied it into her chosen profession, writing, “Free, uninhibited journalism is a cornerstone of democracy, and its very existence is absolutely crucial to the way we live, both individually and as a society. Copy editing is a part that is just as crucial, just as essential, to journalism as journalism is to people’s rights.”
Last year, Amur was a Dow Jones copy desk intern at the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Jessica Fleming, presentation hub team leader at the Pioneer Press, said, “We were all immediately impressed by Jennifer’s intelligence and work ethic.” Amur was at the end of her internship when the collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge occurred. Amur, Fleming says, “jumped right in, moving copy like a pro and writing headlines that our news editors were happy to leave unchanged.”
