University Kentucky Student
Breaks top 20 in Hearst Awards in Multimedia Narrative Storytelling
about Amateur boxer Whitney Dani Brown
by Blanca Gutierrez
February 5, 2021
(FEB 5) In 2018, I got to meet Whitney Dani Brown at the Olympic
Training Center. She is a national junior champion and ranked #1
in the nation at 145 lbs. JO Division. Dani is from Kentucky.
I had
the privilege of being a coach at USA Boxing camp with her. "Dani"
what everyone calls her is one of the nicest young boxers out of
the ring and is a very big puncher in the ring.
A journal
graduate student by the name of Arden Barnes wrote a story on
Dani and won 13th
place in the Multimedia Narrative Storytelling Competition of
the 2020-2021 Hearst Journalism Awards program.
As Chaney Willett wrote in the
University of Kentucky news, "Barnes’ project, titled “The Courage to Win,” focused on
15-year-old Dani Brown from Lexington, who is an eight-time
National Boxing Champion and current Team USA boxer set to
compete in the 2024 Olympics. Brown began boxing at 9 years old
when she joined Legends Boxing along with her older brother,
Dale, who started boxing to help rehabilitate his lungs after
having a double lung infection and pneumonia while he was in
high school.
Full story
“The Courage to Win” comprises of a written portion, a YouTube
video, several photographs and a content plan for Instagram.
“The Courage to Win” can be found in its entirety at
www.ardenbarnes.com/the-courage-to-win.
I asked Arden why she picked
women’s boxing and Dani Brown story for her project. She
told me the following:
"Telling Dani’s story was my first time covering boxing, but I
learned a lot about the sport and the strength it takes through
her."
"My story about Dani was for my capstone project in college
(University of Kentucky) and her coach, Sarge, originally
reached out to me and my professor. Her story was an important
one to tell and was an great subject for me to document for my
project."
"Dani was open and willing to share her story with me, which was
a main reason I chose to share her story. She didn’t mind having
me around at practices with a camera and once the pandemic hit,
she was adaptable and I was still able to finish the project.
She is a strong, talented young woman," added Arden.
About the Awards Program:
The Hearst Journalism Awards Program was founded as a way to
support and assist journalism education at the collegiate level.
The program awards scholarships to students with outstanding
performance in divisions including writing, photojournalism,
audio, television and multimedia competitions. To enter any
competition hosted by the Hearst Awards, students must be
involved in campus media and must have published articles,
photographs or newscasts that can be submitted.
