OPC Second Vice President Abigail Pesta, a freelance journalist, won a National Headliner Award for her reporting in Cosmopolitan magazine. Her award for “magazine feature writing by an individual on a variety of subjects” recognizes work in three of her stories: Who Are You Calling a Bully, I’m Still Alive and From Grad School to Prison.
The first is an investigation of a tragedy in Florida: A girl leapt from a tower to her death, and two middle-school girls were arrested and charged as felons for alleged bullying.
The second is about a young woman who survived a campus shooting and became a campus police officer at the same school where she nearly died.
The third is about a young woman who got sent to Rikers Island, accused of assaulting an officer at an Occupy protest; when she says the officer assaulted her.
Press Club of Atlantic City has handed out National Headliner Awards for journalistic merit since it was founded in 1934. Award categories include print and broadcast journalism, photography, daily newspapers, magazines, graphic artists and news syndicates.