Students win SABEW Best in Business contest

UNC journalism students Catarina Saraiva and Laura Marcinek were named the student winners in the 2008 Society of American Business Editors and Writers Best in Business contest March 24.

Saraiva, a senior from Raleigh, won in the professional publication category for a story she wrote about the adult care industry for the Triangle Business Journal, where she interned last summer.

Marcinek, a junior from Essex, Conn., won in the student publication category for a story she wrote for The Daily Tar Heel about UNC's fundraising in the current economic turmoil.

The wins mark the fourth time in five years that a UNC student has won the SABEW Best in Business Award. A UNC student finished second the other year.

Both students will intern for Bloomberg News in New York this summer.

In 2007, the winner was Daniel Johnson, a UNC master's student who wrote his thesis about the wine industry in Walla Walla, Wash. Part of his thesis was published in the Seattle Times. Johnson is a freelance writer in Ecuador.

In 2006, UNC student Amy Thomson was the runner-up for a story she wrote while interning at Bloomberg News about gun maker Smith & Wesson. Thomson works full-time for Bloomberg in New York, covering Microsoft.

In 2005, UNC student Emily Steel was the winner for a story she wrote while interning at the St. Petersburg Times about compensation at non-profits in the Tampa Bay area. Steel covers advertising for The Wall Street Journal.

In 2004, UNC students John Frank and Steel won for a Daily Tar Heel story about the resignation of UNC chief investment officer Mark Yusko to start a hedge fund. Frank now works for the St. Petersburg Times.