Audrey Kuo — a 2008 graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles — has interned at The Oregonian in Portland and was a slot editor at The Daily Bruin at UCLA, where she pulled double duty on copy-editing shifts while attending formal training for news writing and reporting. Upon graduation, Kuo headed to China. She and a student photographer won a Daily Bruin scholarship to travel there to report on the manufacturing and branding of UCLA goods abroad.
Kuo impressed the judges with her headlines, such as “Ding! You’ve got microwaved salmonella,” on improperly microwaved frozen foods. Kuo’s name is not new to ACES; she received an honorable mention in the 2007 ACES headline contest, student division.
She also was eloquent and impassioned in her essay, writing: “Copy editors don’t bowdlerize the writing that crosses our paths, but we sift through it rigorously and often give it a good talking-to before we let it continue on its way. Copy editors are the ombudsmen behind the scenes and before the presses: We stop mistakes and damaging speech before it gets to print.”
