Kellie Bramlet, off-campus editor for the Marquette Tribune

Once, Sarah called me to tell me she had just interviewed Hillary Clinton.  Needless to say, I was shocked.  It was the week of the Wisconsin primary.  All the candidates had visited Milwaukee, and Sarah had been covering all news regarding Hillary Clinton.  Just a few days before, she had dropped everything to cover a speech given by Chelsea Clinton, but we had never discussed actually getting an interview with the candidate herself. Sarah and another reporter from Marquette’s student-run TV station had taken the initiative and discovered that Clinton would be speaking to the press at a diner near campus. Of all the members of the media present, Sarah was one two reporters granted an interview.

Megan Hupp, assistant off-campus news editor Marquette Tribune

Sarah displays a tenacity few college journalists possess and is never afraid to dig into an assignment for the real story. While writing about the ethics of colleges accepting money from tobacco companies to pay for research projects, Sarah pushed Marquette to find out whether the university had ever accepted such funding. Several weeks later, Sarah got her hands on a report that accused Milwaukee companies of leaking toxins such as arsenic, asbestos, lead and mercury into the area – possibly causing high rates of infant mortality, low birth weight, premature birth, and death from colon cancer and coronary heart disease. Not just reporting on its findings, Sarah revealed that the study had been set for publication but suppressed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Steve Byers, assistant professor of journalism for Marquette University

She says she really loves capturing all angles of a story and conveying a message clearly to readers. I once jokingly said she was spending too much time on the job. Her answer, as best I can remember, went like this: "I feel like the variety and caliber of work I've done this year at the Tribune shows how seriously I take my writing, and how much of myself I put into it."

Once she was assigned to cover the Hillary Clinton primary election campaign. When Clinton first visited, Sarah was able to find her as the presidential candidate was eating a quiet lunch near campus.  She hustled over, and, along with a friend she took from Marquette student television, got an interview – the only ones Clinton gave during her appearance.

She also wrote an outstanding story on outreach by the Mexican government to illegal immigrants in the U.S. – a story that I still haven't seen in the mainstream media. It came about when an English as a Second Language class she teaches ended early in order to prepare for a visit by the Mexican Consulate the next day. Realizing there was a story in the Consulate's visit to Milwaukee to issue visas to illegal immigrants already here, she went back three times within the next two days to learn about how the Consulate issued identification and hear the stories of Mexican immigrants to Milwaukee. It gave a human side to a complex question of national importance.

Source | The Marquette Tribune
Hillary Clinton met with voters and enjoyed corned beef hash and scrambled eggs at Miss Katie's Diner, 1900 W. Clybourn St., on Sunday afternoon.

Source | The Marquette Tribune
Collars jingled as two little gray and brown dogs scrambled over the sheen of the living room floor. Muted giggles of 10-year-old Sara and 4-year-old Joshua Riegler drifted in from the adjoining kitchen. Billy the cat leapt silently onto the leather couch beside April Riegler. Her husband, Jerry, arms folded, looked on approvingly.

Source | The Marquette Tribune
Leticia Molina sat in a tiny chair at a tiny table made for schoolchildren in a hallway of Escuela Vieau with her 3-year-old daughter, Ariel. Sweat glazed her brow as fans propelled air down the elementary school hallway lined with people — waiting.

Source | The Marquette Tribune
Spring break travel took a twist for College of Engineering senior Joseph Johnnie. He skipped hotels and chose alternative accommodations for his trip to the east coast. Through an international non-profit organization called CouchSurfing, Johnnie crashed on someone's couch in Washington, D.C., for free.