Winning an award is always gratifying, but when you win an award for doing something that you love, the satisfaction is even sweeter.
Josh Rizzo of Irwin recently was named the 2010 Arthur H. Barlow National Student-Journalist of the Year, winning the Society of Collegiate Journalists Award for his work with The Rocket, a weekly student newspaper serving Slippery Rock University.
Rizzo, who serves as editor-in-chief, has a staff of 13 and a circulation of 3,000.
Rizzo said he always enjoyed reading the newspaper, even as a child.
"When I was little, the Pittsburgh Trib was 35 cents and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette was 50 cents," Rizzo said. "I used to buy them and read the sports pages and look at the editorial cartoons. I just had an interest in news. It was cheap and something to do."
Rizzo, who was promoted from sports editor to the top position, has led the crusade to expand The Rocket's coverage.
As the only local newspaper, The Rocket has become much more than a listing of campus highlights.
"The Rocket has reached a certain aspect of power," Rizzo said. "We're the only newspaper in the area, and most students recognize our leadership during the school year by going to the website 50,000 times per month. We serve a very important role."
Rizzo worked on his high school newspaper and, after flirting with the idea of teaching, decided that the newspaper industry is his true passion.
"For a while I wanted to go into education," Rizzo said. "Then I saw how burned-out some teachers got and decided I didn't want to teach anymore. I got into journalism because I started taking the high school class centered around journalism my sophomore year."
Working with the public for the paper, Rizzo has discovered an interest in what others have to say and what their pasts may hold.
"I enjoy writing features on sports, athletes and doing research on things that happened in the past," Rizzo said. " I'm fascinated with how things progressed and love going through old pictures and things of that nature."
In addition to this year's first-place win, which included $500, Rizzo has won in the Society of Collegiate Journalists categories: second place for sports writing, honorable mention for sports writing, honorable mention for staff editorial, third place for continuing news coverage and third place for news story.
Rizzo was recently recognized by the council of trustees at Slippery Rock University, who passed a resolution honoring his achievements.
Faculty advisers who recommended Rizzo for consideration for this year's award were Joseph Harry, Thomas Flynn and Mark Zeltner.
"Josh has been extremely dedicated to the improvement of The Rocket, and his commitment has improved the newspaper immensely," said Zeltner, an associate professor of communication. "I recommended him for his recent award because I felt he deserved recognition for his hard work. Josh is a superior writer, but his biggest attribute is his work ethic and his dedication to print journalism."
Rizzo is the son of Kelly and Bob Rizzo of Irwin.
"We are so proud of Josh, because you can only hope that your child will find a job that makes them happy," Kelly Rizzo said. "For Josh, this has been his dream. He has had a goal, and he has been willing to do whatever he had to do to make that dream come true.
"He has been able to juggle being a full-time student, work multiple part-time jobs and still carry a heavy academic load in order to complete his journalism degree in 3 1/2 years instead of four. I know he has learned from his experiences at SRU, and we look forward to see where Josh will go from here."
