Two University of Denver journalism majors won first prize in a Colorado statewide contest for the voter guide supplement they prepared for the 2004 elections.

Karna Younger, former editor in chief of the Clarion, and Kristin Kunz, former news editor, received the award from the Colorado Press Women in the organization’s annual communication contest. Their entry now goes to the national contest that is sponsored by the National Federation of Press Women.

Winners of the national contest will be announced in September at the NFPW conference in Seattle.

The voter guide Younger and Kunz prepared was published in the Clarion a week prior to the November 2004 election. It consisted of eight pages and included interviews with local candidates, examined state ballot propositions and how they would affect students and focused on issues affecting young adults in the presidential campaigns of John Kerry and George W. Bush.

In awarding the prize, the judges said the supplement was “very readable” and contained information that “really addressed student issues.”

Ania Savage, student media adviser at DU, entered the voter guide in the contest on behalf of Younger and Kunz. Cathy Grieve, professor in the Department of Mass Communications and Journalism Studies, supervised the independent study project which resulted in the voter guide. Younger and Kunz researched, wrote, copy edited and laid out the guide using QuarkXpress.

Younger, a double major in journalism and English, joined the Clarion as a freshman and served as a copy editor, managing editor and editor. Kunz worked on the Clarion as a reporter, two quarters as business editor and news editor.