FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
7/30/14

Contact:
Joe Skeel, SPJ Executive Director, 317-927-8000 ext. 216, jskeel@spj.org
Taylor Carlier, SPJ Communications Coordinator, 317-920-4785, tcarlier@spj.org

INDIANAPOLIS – The Society of Professional Journalists is pleased to award Loyola University New Orleans student Lucy Dieckhaus with the Robert D.G. Lewis First Amendment Award. The award honors a student SPJ member who has demonstrated outstanding service to the First Amendment through their work in journalism.

Dieckhaus is a senior at Loyola University New Orleans where she double majors in Mass Communication and Political Science, so she can have a well-rounded perspective of the First Amendment and laws that affect journalism. Specifically, she has fought for the First Amendment by writing articles addressing open meeting laws in New Orleans and joining the Lens Charter School Reporting Corps, through which she covers public meetings where she is sometimes the only public attendee.

As a member of SPJ, Dieckhaus has served as the Vice President of Loyola’s Student Media’s SPJ Chapter. She coordinated the nomination of the chapter’s advisor for the David L. Eshelman award and was also a 2013 Region 12 Mark of Excellence Award winner herself.

“I have learned and continue to advocate that accuracy alone does not depict the truth, but accuracy and context equals truth,” Dieckhaus wrote in her application essay. “I am motivated to enter the professional world because of the passion and skillset I have learned inside and outside of the classroom, but I am always looking to expand my knowledge, refine my skillset and see multiple perspectives.”

Dieckhaus will be recognized at the Student Union held during the 2014 Excellence in Journalism Conference in Nashville, Tenn., to which she also received complimentary convention registration and travel expenses.

Founded in 1909 as Sigma Delta Chi, SPJ promotes the free flow of information vital to a well-informed citizenry; works to inspire and educate the next generation of journalists; and protects First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech and press. For more information about SPJ, please visit spj.org.

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