For most journalism students, to win the Pulitzer Prize is a faraway dream. For Point Loma Nazarene University student Kelly Bennett, it is already a mark on her resumé.
In May and June of 2005, Bennett was working as an intern for Copley News Service’s (CNS) Washington, D.C., bureau when her supervisor, Marcus Stern, asked her to help with what he called a “hunch.” Several months later, that hunch had become the center of a corruption investigation surrounding former San Diego Congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham.
On April 18, 2006, The San Diego Union-Tribune and CNS were announced to have won the Pulitzer Prize for breaking the scandal.
“I expected D.C. journalists to cover stories like that all the time,” Bennett said, adding that she could not believe that her involvement helped to garner the award, which is considered by many to be the foremost recognition in journalism.
Bennett noted that her participation in the story was limited to investigative work, such as copying and looking at 17 years’ worth of tax documents, as well as calling government think tanks to comment on the situation. Her internship ended two days after the story was published.
A native of Victoria, British Columbia, Bennett came to San Diego in August 2002 to attend PLNU. Her interest in the media began in high school when she signed up for a yearbook class after discovering that the cooking class she wanted to take was full.
The desire to write, however, only began under the mentorship of Professor Dean Nelson in her undergraduate years, who described her as having “loads of talent.” In fact, it was Nelson who informed her that she was a prize winner.
“It was very generous of [Marcus Stern] to do that,” she said, adding that she was “just excited to be part of the team that broke the first story.”
Bennett noted that, as is often the case with journalistic work, she just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Her assignment in Washington, D.C., was to cover the National Spelling Bee and several of its contestants, so her involvement with Stern and the Cunningham story was coincidental. Furthermore, when she returned to San Diego, she was more interested in the Spelling Bee story (one of the contestants she was covering had won the competition) than she was about the corruption scandal.
“I don’t know where a college student with a Pulitzer can go now, but she has the ability to make a huge difference in the world as a journalist,” Nelson said via e-mail. Nevertheless, Bennett is excited that she has this as an experience to look back on.
“My parents went kind of crazy with it,” she said, noting that while it is a great personal achievement, it is also a notable addition to her list of journalistic accomplishments.
Having graduated this year from PLNU, Bennett is currently looking for a position as a reporter, and to eventually attend graduate school.