Staying awake until sunrise might be a college stereotype.
But staying awake until sunrise to finish the print edition of your student newspaper? That’s something few can lay claim to.
For those who work at The Emory Wheel — especially over the past year — it’s just another week. And that dedication is part of what earned the publication the 2024 national Corbin Gwaltney Award for Best All-Around Student Newspaper in the “small” university division from the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ).
“This really shows how much we learn from each other and how good mentorship is at The Wheel,” says former editor-in-chief Sophia Peyser, who graduated in May 2025 with a double major in environmental science and English and creative writing.
“It’s a huge deal, it says that we’re in the same category as the best student papers in the country, bar none, despite being independent from the university and being a small school without a journalism department or football team,” says editor-in-chief Spencer Friedland, who remembers refreshing the SPJ page daily while waiting for the award announcement.
“The recognition for hard work and thousands of hours over one year is something special to share with the people from The Wheel forever,” says Friedland. He will return to The Wheel this fall as a senior, double majoring in film and media as well as philosophy, politics and law.
The publication is a team effort.
“Every single person who has touched The Wheel’s content in the past year is part of this award and part of this fantastic feeling that we’ve touched the lives of the Emory community in ways that SPJ recognized,” says editor-in-chief Ellie Fivas, an Oxford continuee and rising senior double majoring in political science and English.
“We all felt a big responsibility to be the voice of our community,” echoes rising senior Catherine Goodman, the Arts & Life and editorial board managing editor. “This award was the culmination of a year of incredibly hard work by everyone on staff.”
Fivas points out that over the past year, The Wheel has been able to report on and facilitate discussions around events and issues that were a microcosm of what was happening across the U.S.
That coverage has earned staff some of the same complaints professional journalists get. “It can be a thankless job at the end of the day,” says former editor-in-chief Madi Olivier, who graduated in May 2025 with a bachelor of science in psychology and a minor in rhetoric, writing and information design.
“Someone is always mad about how we covered something,” says Olivier, who in July will begin working as a behavior technician at a center for children with autism. “We’re juggling tough conversations and that’s the nature of the job. But we’re doing the best we can as students and this award is recognition of that.”
A completely student-run organization
Juggling is an apt verb for a job that scarcely pays but requires dozens of hours per week — on top of school work and other extracurriculars.
“Everything at The Wheel is a lot more work than most people think it is,” says multimedia managing editor Jack Rutherford, a rising junior double majoring in political science and economics. “Everyone makes a targeted effort to do their job very well and that takes a lot of time. I’m so proud of the organization.”
The depth of dedication shows in the additional awards The Wheel claimed: a national award for breaking news photography and four Region 3 Mark of Excellence awards in the Feature Writing, Editorial/Opinion Writing, General Column Writing and Breaking News Photography categories. Additionally, The Wheel finished as a finalist in the General News Reporting and Photo Essay/Slideshow categories.
The accolades are even more impressive when considering that The Wheel is entirely student-run, from the writing to the editing to the finances.
They do, at least, have creative writing professor Hank Klibanoff in their corner. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author is a staunch supporter and acts as advisor.
While Emory provides office space for The Wheel in the Alumni Memorial University Center, Fivas explains that people are often stunned that The Wheel is financially and editorially independent from the university — the publication is self-funded through advertising revenue. Editors also receive a small stipend from the advertising budget.
“If you look at our reporting, you won’t think it’s just students. And you’d think we’d have someone who reviews our finances, but it’s all students who pour their time and passion into everything we do,” she says.
For editors-in-chief, the time commitment is often 40 hours per week.
“Being editor-in-chief was equal parts so stressful and so exhilarating,” says Peyser, now a news associate at CNN. “The multiple nights in the newsroom that went until 6 a.m. were ultimately so worth it based on how proud of our work I am.”
Friedland also speaks to the dedicated nature of The Wheel. “We have writers who will be on five stories at a time, editors juggling things during finals, we all still have to go class, and a lot of us have jobs on top of it all.
“It’s weird, sometimes, to be both students and journalists,” he says. “You might cover an event and then go to the dining hall and see the very people who didn’t like your article.”
Fivas echoes how important student journalism is and the unique way it can approach impactful stories on a smaller level as part of the community, finding angles that professional organizations can’t always pursue.
Peer mentorship keeps The Wheel turning
Emory University doesn’t offer a journalism major and the majority of The Wheel staff have limited experience with journalism or don’t plan to pursue it professionally.
That’s where peer mentorship comes in.
Rutherford’s path to The Wheel was roundabout. During his first semester on campus, he attended an interest meeting with a friend and was drawn to the photography section.
Rutherford began regularly taking assignments and became invested in the news side. Now, he’s multimedia managing editor — and winner of the national and regional award for best Breaking News Photography.
“Hard work really makes the dream happen, to be honest,” Rutherford says. “I was a little bit behind the curve coming into it, but The Wheel — and especially The Wheeltern training program — helped me solve all that.”
Friedland sees this as one of The Wheel’s missions. “We market ourselves as the school newspaper but also as the journalism education at Emory,” he says. Not only does the paper offer a way to learn outside the classroom, but there’s no big barrier to entry. Anyone interested can join.
The Wheeltern program teaches foundational principles of journalism, including ethics, quoting and interviewing, and more, before breaking students into smaller groups based on interest areas.
For Goodman, the long-form piece about Emory’s student-run broadcasting station she wrote for her final project won a Region 3 SPJ award (along with her additional General Column Writing Region 3 award). Now, she’s the Wall Street Journal’s 2025 Arts in Review Bartley Fellow.
“The skills I’ve learned at The Wheel are the foundational skills I need here,” says Goodman, who is majoring in both English and art history. “Not just the basics of editing, but self-determination, discipline, organization and being part of a team are things I carry now and will for the rest of my life.”
Everyone on staff is excited about the year ahead.
“We’re just students, but we’re an independent authority on the truth of what happens at Emory,” says Friedland, pointing to The Wheel’s archival presence in the Emory Libraries. “It’s made me so grateful for this. For a whole year, I am in charge of writing and maintaining the historical record.”
“This feels less like an end and more like a beginning,” says Fivas. “The Wheel has never gotten this level of recognition from the SPJ and I feel it’s a starting point to continue to do really great work and make even stronger content.”
The Wheel now offers subscriptions
For the 2025-26 academic year, The Wheel is offering subscriptions. The biweekly print issues, along with two longform magazines, will be delivered via USPS. Annual subscriptions are due by Sept. 1, 2025, to lock in the yearly rate discount.
Learn more and subscribe on The Emory Wheel website.