WKU News

Six students will work in professional settings this summer as the 2026 class of WKU Student Publications Fellows.

• Jonah Savage, a rising sophomore, will work as the Charles Mason Ralph Fellow in the newsroom at the Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer.
• Bradlee Reed-Whalen, a rising junior, will be the Tom Caudill Fellow in the newsroom at the Lexington Herald-Leader.
• Abby Vickers, a rising senior, will serve as the Judy Wildman Hughes Fellow in the newsroom at the Bowling Green Daily News.
• Lindsey McIntosh, a rising senior, will fill the Herald Endowment Fellowship at Tucker Publishing and Evansville Living.
• Diego Alcaraz-Monje, a rising sophomore, will be the Paul and Ellen Schuhmann Fellow covering news on the WKU campus for the College Heights Herald.
• Josh Baumgardner, a rising junior, will serve as the Dr. Barbara Burch Fellow covering news on the WKU campus for the College Heights Herald.

The fellows for Summer 2026 will bring to 97 the number of Student Publications Fellowships since the program was created with a single fellowship at the Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer in 2012.

The program, unique in scope among college media groups, was created from an endowment left to WKU Student Publications by Charles Mason Ralph, a former College Heights Herald staff member who died in 2010. Over the years, that single fellowship launched in Ralph’s hometown in 2012 has grown and evolved, with as many as 10 fellowships in some summers.

The success of the program has spurred alumni, friends and partners of Student Publications to create additional fellowships through special purpose funds or with donations to the Student Publications Fellowship Fund housed in the College Heights Foundation.

Through the fellowships, Student Publications funds a portion of the stipends that fellows receive to cover their living expenses and partners make contributions to the Fellowship Fund to cover their share of the stipends. The stipends range from $4,500 to $6,000, depending on living expenses in the cities where they are located.

“Our fellowship program truly is one of the very best things we offer our students,” said Chuck Clark, director of WKU Student Publications. “It’s a true, three-way partnership among Student Pubs, our alumni and our partners to give these promising students the chance to develop skills in a professional setting, and then bring back that knowledge to WKU.”

WKU Student Publications is among the most honored collegiate media groups in the nation. It has four student-led divisions -- the College Heights Herald newsroom, the Talisman life and culture magazine, Student Publications Advertising sales team and Cherry Creative branded content studio.

The group has amassed 53 national Pacemaker Awards from Associated Collegiate Press since its first in 1978 for the Talisman, then a yearbook, and in 1981 for the College Heights Herald, then a campus newspaper.

The four areas have combined to win 25 Pacemakers since 2012 and 16 since 2020 -- both the most Pacemakers awarded to a single collegiate group nationally during those timespans.

The Pacemaker is the nation's premier honor for college publications. The College Heights Herald is the No. 6 most honored publication in the century-long history of the Pacemaker Awards.

For more information: Chuck Clark, director, WKU Student Publications, chuck.clark@wku.edu, 270-745-4206.