Harrington Award

Medill’s highest graduate student award was instituted in 1937 as a tribute to the late Harry Franklin Harrington, who was the first director of Medill. Based on journalistic promise and high scholastic achievement, it is awarded to an outstanding graduate student (or students) selected by the faculty in each major area of specialization.

As director from 1921 to 1935, Harrington shaped the direction of the school. He developed a broad set of requirements that included journalism courses and liberal arts courses, including psychology, sociology, history, economics and political science. Harrington was an early leader in journalism education and was president of the American Association of Teachers of Journalism, forerunner of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. He wrote or co-wrote nine journalism books and was a contributing editor of The Christian Science Monitor.