The Kentucky Kernel and KRNL Lifestyle + Fashion brought home 59 national awards this week at the fall College Media Convention.
From Oct. 16 -18, Kernel Media attended the convention hosted by the Associated Collegiate Press (ACP) and the College Media Association (CMA) in Washington, D.C., which included multiple educational sessions, keynote speakers and most notably, award ceremonies for the Pinnacles, ACP Pacemakers and ACP Best of Show.
The Kernel historically took home one of two Broadcast Pacemakers, after just recently making the change to multimedia, according to Ryan Craig, student media advisor for the University of Kentucky.
“It just kind of reinforces what we’ve been saying,” Craig said. “Both newsrooms are some of the strongest in collegiate America.”
Craig said at this year’s awards show, the Kernel and KRNL were just as successful in photo, video, podcast and all aspects of multimedia as they are in print.
“We’re no longer a newspaper,” Craig said. “I feel like that (Broadcast Pacemaker) was an immense accomplishment, considering that we really only started our program with video, the broadcast-style videos three academic years ago.”
Giana Gallo, a senior broadcast journalism major and Kernel editor-in-chief, won awards in multiple broadcast categories, including for Kernel Chronicles, the Kernel’s digital magazine show, which won the Pacemaker award.
Gallo, along with former Kernel TikTok manager Bryce Towle, began Kernel Chronicles over a year ago to imitate a news station while being creative and unique, saying what began as a small project is now a nationally recognized news show.
“It’s (the award) a testament of testing the waters and trying to see what we can do with no radio license. We’re not a TV station … At that point, we didn’t even have a video team. It was literally just a couple of nerds hanging out,” Gallo said. “We’re kind of just putting a bunch of creative minds together that all have a shared passion for telling a story visually and seeing where that can take off and take us.”
To see not only herself, but several reporters she trained win national awards, Gallo said, means all the hard work and dedication from the last year truly paid off.
“I’m just very proud of the video team and the Kernel that I can say in my time that I really have made a legacy and an impact,” Gallo said.
While she has known about Kernel Chronicles being a Pacemaker finalist for months, Gallo said, seeing it be crowned top two in the country was unlike anything she had experienced in her journalism career so far.
“I’ve been crying ever since I got home, honestly, and every phone call and when I was at lunch with my boyfriend, I started crying at the table,” Gallo said. “It’s just so surreal.”
Laurel Swanz, a senior broadcast journalism major, 2024-25 KRNL editor-in-chief and current Kernel news editor, took home many awards for the two issues of KRNL she led.
Swanz won first in investigative story and sports investigative story at the Pinnacles for an article called Swim at Your Own Risk, which she wrote with three others in the spring, a piece detailing the sexual abuse of former UK swimming coach Lars Jorgenson.
“I just wanted to cry, really, because it was really hard last year,” Swanz said. “I wish my team had been there to celebrate with me, because I did not write that piece alone.”
Swanz, along with Carlee Hogsten, Alexis Baker and Reaghan Chen, spent months going through documents, sharing countless Zoom calls and speaking with “people who didn’t want to talk to us.”
Through all the hard work, Swanz said she learned what it meant to be a reporter, saying she not only loved seeing the work pay off at the award ceremonies but also knew it brought real change.
“I want to do the journalism that matters, and this piece mattered to me and to the people that worked on it and to our campus and just seeing it recognized on a national scale was really fulfilling,” Swanz said.
Seeing the magazine awarded for many of its designs was fulfilling, Swanz said, and seeing many of the people who worked so closely with her win, such as Ashleigh Jones, was even better.
Jones, a senior digital media design major, creative director for KRNL and chief of design for the Kernel, took home four individual awards at the ceremonies.
Jones said she had only won one other award while working for Kernel Media since 2023
and felt extremely proud of herself for her year of accomplishments.
“I’ve never won anything like that before, so when it happened, I couldn’t believe it. I just was shaking and tearing up, just because I just felt so proud of myself,” Jones said. “It felt surreal, and I couldn’t help but cry, because that’s the biggest accomplishment I’ve had so far in college.”
Since hearing about the nomination in July, Jones said she has been imagining what it would feel like to win, saying she couldn’t believe herself when it actually happened.
However, in every category, she did not win first, Jones said she took notes of who did, so that she can come back to the CMA/ACP awards next year with bigger and better designs.
“I knew that what I’m doing and what I want to do with my future, I can do it and I am good at it,” Jones said. “So it was just nice to … know that I’m not wasting my time in college, I’m doing the work and I’m getting recognized for it.”
CMA Pinnacle
Individual Pinnacle
Giana Gallo, Kentucky Kernel – Honorable Mention for Breaking News Package (Audio/Video)
Hannah Piedad, Kentucky Kernel – Honorable Mention for Breaking News Photo
Sammy Wynn, Kentucky Kernel – Honorable Mention for Breaking News Story (Print/Web)
Lilly Keith, Abbey Cutrer, Edward Smith, Kentucky Kernel – Third Place General News Multimedia Coverage
Sammy Wynn, Isabella Lindsey, Christian Kantosky, Kentucky Kernel – Second Place News Multimedia Package
Giana Gallo, Edward Smith, Kentucky Kernel – First Place Video Newscast
Staff (Carlee Hogsten, Laurel Swanz, Reaghan Chen, Alexis Baker) KRNL Lifestyle + Fashion – First Place Investigative Story
Ashleigh Jones, Kentucky Kernel – Second Place Yearbook Spread
Staff, Kentucky Kernel- Second Place Video Entertainment Program
Bryce Towle, KRNL Lifestyle + Fashion – Second Place Creative Film
Akhila Nadimpalli, Carlee Hogsten, KRNL Lifestyle + Fashion – Honorable Mention Infographic
Bryce Towle, KRNL Lifestyle + Fashion – First Place Long Documentary
Edward Smith, KRNL Lifestyle + Fashion – Honorable Mention, Short Documentary
Ashleigh Jones, KRNL Lifestyle + Fashion – Second Place Magazine Spread
Hayden Burn, KRNL Lifestyle + Fashion – Third Place Vertical Short Video
Kernel Staff, Kentucky Kernel – Second Place, Video Entertainment Program
Olivia White, Kentucky Kernel – Honorable Mention A&E Story (Audio/Video)
Alexis Baker, KRNL Lifestyle + Fashion – Honorable Mention Feature Photo
Mathew Mueller, Christian Kantosky, Kentucky Kernel – Second Place Feature Photo Package
Sammy Wynn, Isabella Lindsey, Kentucky Kernel – Third Place Coverage of Diversity
Carlee Hogsten, KRNL Lifestyle + Fashion – Second Place Coverage of Diversity
Abbey Cutrer, KRNL Lifestyle + Fashion – Second Place Portrait
Staff, Kentucky Kernel – Third Place Editorial
Staff, Kentucky Kernel – First Place Advertising Special Section
Staff, Kentucky Kernel – Honorable Mention Audio Public Service Announcement
Bryce Towle, Kentucky Kernel – Second Place Video Public Service Announcement
Lauren Smiley, Kentucky Kernel – Honorable Mention Game Story (Audio/Video)
Staff (Carlee Hogsten, Laurel Swanz, Reaghan Chen, Alexis Baker), KRNL Lifestyle + Fashion – First Place Investigative Sports Story
Staff (Carlee Hogsten, Laurel Swanz, Reaghan Chen, Alexis Baker), KRNL Lifestyle + Fashion – Third Place Multimedia Sports Story
Christian Kantosky, Kentucky Kernel – Second Place Multimedia Sports Story
Bryce Towle, Kentucky Kernel – Honorable Mention Sports Feature (Audio/Video)
Karsten VanMeter, KRNL Lifestyle + Fashion – Third Place Sports Feature (Audio/Video)
Karsten VanMeter, KRNL Lifestyle + Fashion – Honorable Mention Sports Broadcast
Organizational Pinnacle
KRNL Lifestyle + Fashion – First Place Feature Magazine of the year
ACP Pacemakers
Organizational Pacemakers
Kernel Chronicles, Kentucky Kernel – 2025 Broadcast Pacemaker
Individual Pacemakers
Staff (Carlee Hogsten, Laurel Swanz, Reaghan Chen, Alexis Baker), KRNL Lifestyle + Fashion – Second Place 2025 Multimedia News Story
Carlee Hogsten, Christian Kantosky, KRNL Lifestyle + Fashion, First Place 2025 Multimedia Feature Story
Carlee Hogsten, Akhila Nadimpalli, KRNL Lifestyle + Fashion – Honorable Mention Interactive Graphic
Alexis Baker, Carlee Hogsten, Laurel Swanz, KRNL Lifestyle + Fashion – Honorable Mention 2025 Social Media Reporting
Staff, KRNL Lifestyle + Fashion – Fourth Place 2025 Magazine Cover
Staff, KRNL Lifestyle + Fashion – Honorable Mention 2025 Magazine Cover
Ashleigh Jones, KRNL Lifestyle + Fashion – First Place 2025 Magazine Page/Spread
Aubrey Riddick, KRNL Lifestyle + Fashion – Honorable Mention 2025 Magazine Page/Spread
Ashleigh Jones, KRNL Lifestyle + Fashion – Honorable Mention 2025 Yearbook Page/Spread
Mathew Mueller, KRNL Lifestyle + Fashion – Second Place 2025 Sports Game/Action Photo
Edward Smith, Kentucky Kernel – Honorable Mention 2025 Broadcast Story of the Year
Edward Smith, KRNL Lifestyle + Fashion – Second Place 2025 Broadcast Feature Story
Karsten VanMeter, KRNL Lifestyle + Fashion – Honorable Mention 2025 Broadcast Sports Story
Marissa Armstrong, Libby Heckert, Gabriella Mercedes, Lauren Smiley, Kentucky Kernel – Third Place 2025 Broadcast Commentary
Sara Gibson, Colton Johnson, Kai McClelland, Kentucky Kernel – Fifth Place 2025 Broadcast Commentary
Helena Arjona, Chase Myers, KRNL Lifestyle + Fashion – Honorable Mention 2025 Broadcast Commentary
ACP Best of Show
Individual Best of Show
Piper Renaud, Kentucky Kernel – Fifth Place 2025 Broadcast: News Story
Gavin Breunig, Kentucky Kernel – First Place 2025 Broadcast: Feature Story
Gabriella Mercedes, Kentucky Kernel – Second Place 2025 Broadcast: Sports Story
Ashleigh Jones, Kentucky Kernel – Tenth Place 2025 Design: Yearbook
Christian Kantosky, Kentucky Kernel – First Place 2025 Photojournalism: New/Feature Photo
Christian Kantosky, Kentucky Kernel – First Place 2025 Photojournalism: Sports Photo
Isabella Sepahban, Kentucky Kernel – Third Place 2025 Reporting: Feature Story
Organizational Best of Show
Kentucky Kernel – Seventh Place 2025 Website (four-year campus, more than 15,000)