JUDD WEIL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — A soon-to-be graduate from Hutchinson Community College (HutchCC), Ainsley Trunkhill, was recently named the Two-Year College Journalist of the Year at the Kansas Collegiate Media Spring Conference on April 17.
Trunkhill is a sophomore at HutchCC and the managing editor of content for the college’s student newspaper, the Hutchinson Collegian. She will be graduating with her associate degree in English Education from HutchCC this year.
The Hutchinson Collegian is a member of the Kansas Collegiate Media (KCM). The KCM is the state-wide student media organization. They serve Kansas college and university journalism programs, such as newspapers, magazines, and yearbooks, by providing contests and programming aimed at supporting the important, democratic function of news reporting and information dissemination.
Every year the KCM holds a contest at the Kansas Collegiate Spring Conference where Kansas journalism students enter their work. The contest typically takes place in mid-April at the Drury Plaza Hotel Broadview in Wichita, Kansas.
There are two major awards, Two-Year College Journalist of the Year and Four-Year College Journalist of the Year.
Various members of the Hutchinson Collegian also won smaller awards at the event.
Trunkhill was recognized for her work with the Collegian and won Journalist of the Year for Two-Year Colleges. She was acknowledged for feature writing, profile writing, and copy-editing, as well as receiving an honorable mention in column writing.
“What's most impressive about the awards that Ainsley won, is she graduated from high school last spring, so she was playing with half a deck,” Brad Hallier, Assistant Professor of Journalism at HutchCC and Hutchinson Collegian faculty advisor, said. Everybody else gets to enter anything from 2022 from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, but she couldn’t enter anything from last spring because she was in high school.”
This meant that all the content Trunkhill submitted was, and could only be, from the fall.
“It was honestly, such an immense honor,” Trunkhill said. “I came in with very little expectations because I had less content and less experience as compared to the other competitors. But just being able to be recognized for that small content I was able to produce shows that people actually care about the work that I'm doing, and people recognize my writing and it's always nice to be recognized for something that you're proud of and seeing other people be proud of that as well.”
Trunkhill is not sure yet about what kind of journalist she wants to be, but has a path set for herself.
“I don't have anything solidified yet,” Trunkhill said. “I know next year I want to continue doing journalism at K-State and write for the paper there.”
Trunkhill is very passionate about investigative journalism.
“I think my favorite work that I've done so far has been investigative work and profile work on people,” Trunkhill said. “I did a story on an international student, Felipe Trautmann, who had just this insane story, and it was great to be able to meet him and talk about those things. Then I did a story on sex trafficking in Hutchinson, and that was really eye opening, too.”
Trunkhill has education in mind for her future.
“I want to be a teacher one day, and so whether that's a teacher of journalism, a teacher of English, that's all still in the future,” Trunkhill said.
No matter what Trunkhill does, her passion for English and writing is at the root.
“English has always been this huge love of mine,” Trunkhill said. “Ever since I was little, I was an avid reader, an avid writer, just writing on napkins and in my Notes app and everything.
She also had familiarity with her instructor, Brad Hallie.
“Then I knew Brad from his daughter, we're friends, played soccer together, and so it just seemed right. I was like, ‘you know, I just want to try something new, get myself involved in the short time that I'm at HCC.’ So, it was just kind of on a whim that I decided to do this [journalism] and then after seeing that first paper that I produced, I had this really awesome opportunity.”
Trunkhill’s opportunity came in the form of an interview with former Reno County undersheriff and HutchCC’s former police instructor, Sheldon Stewart. She called her interview with him a perfect starting off point, and recalled it was amazing to see it published in an actual paper. That profile experience prompted Trunkhill to keep going with journalism.
A student from the Hutchinson Collegian has won Two-Year College Journalist of the Year five years out of the last seven. Trunkhill is the fifth to win the award.
“It speaks highly of Brad and the work that he's able to do and in his career and how he's able to guide students and be a mentor for students,” Trunkhill said. “It shows a level of success that's able to come out of HutchCC, and it's cool being able to see all these people reach success, and the different parts of the state and different parts of the country having all originated from this one small college.”
Trunkhill has met other successes from the HutchCC journalism program and cites that as a testament not just to Hallier and HutchCC, but also to her possible future.
“I got to meet with Sam Bailey, who was the Four-Year Journalist of the Year this year, she's at Emporia State, and she won Two-Year Journalist of the Year when she was at HCC,” Trunkhill said. It's kind of like, you know, looking into the future and seeing maybe I could win Four-Year Journalist and I could be a writer at Emporia State or covering these hot topic issues. It's nice to kind of recognize where people came from and then see where you can grow from there.”
Trunkhill said her time at the Hutchinson Collegian opened her eyes to the importance and realism of journalism at the local level.
“I'll start off by saying before the Collegian, I didn't have the appreciation that I have now for local journalism,” Trunkhill said. “I was very focused these big magazines, New York Times, Washington Post, just high profile, national news, and I really didn't have as much of a care for what's happening in my in my own town.
“Then actually being in there and seeing the inside workings of it, made me have just so much more of an appreciation for it and it helped me be more connected in my town.”
From there, Trunkhill’s appreciation for local stories only grew as she read different sites based not just in Hutchinson, but Kansas as well.
“I think that's something that is important for people to know, is that you need to have a footing in your own community and then that can be applied to a national scale or to an international scale.” Trunkhill said. “But it all starts in your own town, and it all starts with how you're engaging with the people you actually see face-to-face and the people in your workplace and in your grocery store. If you want to have an impact, you have to start with what's in front of you and start with what you know.”
CLICK HERE to download the Hutch Post mobile app.
CLICK HERE to sign up for the daily Hutch Post email news update.