Two UNC students selected to ONA conference student newsroom

UNC students students Maegan Clawges and Hrisanthi Kroi were each one of 20 students chosen to participate in the student newsroom for the 2014 Online News Association (ONA) conference Sept. 25-27 in Chicago.

Clawges, a double major studying journalism and computer science double, is currently interning with Google. She organized Pearl Hacks — a hackathon for more than 200 high school and college women interested in computer programming — at the UNC J-school and computer science department this spring.

Kroi, a Reese News Lab intern from Asheville, N.C., is currently working in the Reese News Lab on the pilot launch of Capitol Hound, an audio transcription service for the N.C. General Assembly.

The newsroom will be headed by committee co-chairs Michelle Johnson of Boston University and Katia Hetter of CNN.com. The newsroom’s mix of graduate and undergraduate students partner with mentors of diverse skills to create content in a range of digital formats, such as interactive text and graphics, blogging, slideshows, audio and video.

Google is providing $30,00 to cover registration, travel and lodging expenses for 38 students and mentors.