Four current and former University of Wisconsin-Superior students who report news for KUWS-FM 91.3  received 15 awards March 31 from the Northwest Broadcast News Association.

KUWS is a Wisconsin Public Radio affiliate located at UW-Superior. Student journalists work for the station as a co-curricular activity of the university's Communicating Arts Department.

At an awards ceremony held last weekend in Bloomington, Minn., KUWS reporters earned three first-place reporting awards and 12 merit awards. The competition covered radio, television and online reporting in six states in the Upper Midwest.

The NBNA awards came just a few weeks after three KUWS reporters were recognized for their work by the Wisconsin Broadcast Association.

The NBNA awards and students who received them include:

• Audio - Merit Award to Jim Leino for "Students Protest Walker Plan."
  
  
• Audio - First PlaceAward to Laura Podgornik for "Awesome '80s Prom."
  
  
• Broadcast Writing - Merit Award to Leino for "Boxes and Walls."
  
  
• Broadcast Writing - Merit Award to Kristen Vake for "Shelter food shelf cuts hurting families."
  
  
• General Reporting - Merit Award to Vake for "Federal cuts hit low-income, homeless people." She also received a Merit Award in the Hard Feature category for this report.
  
  
• General Reporting - Merit Award to Leino for "Occupy Duluth takes down tents."
  He also received a First Place Award for this report in the Hard Feature category.
  
   
• Investigative - Merit Award to Podgornik and Vake for "Cutting community health centers."
  
  
• Investigative - Merit Award to Joe Cadotte for "MIA Coming Home."
  
  
• Series - Merit Award to Podgornik, Cadotte and Leino for "Wisconsin Uprising."
  
  
• Soft Feature - Merit Award to Podgornik for "Symphony2U."
  
  
• Spot News - Merit Award to Podgornik for "Jauch returns from exile."
  
  
• Spot News - Merit Award to Leino for "Students Protest Walker Plan."
  
  
• Spot News - First Place Award to Podgornik for "Live from Madison protest."
  

Podgornik, Leino and Cadotte are now UW-Superior alumni. Vake continues to report for KUWS.

In addition, earlier in March Podgornik, Cadotte and Leino received a first place award in the News/Documentary Reporting category from the Wisconsin Broadcast Association. The award recognized their report titled "Wisconsin Uprising" concerning the protests in Madison last year/

UW-Superior engages students for lifelong learning and rewarding careers through more than 26 undergraduate and graduate programs offered on campus along with degrees offered through distance learning. The university is a member of the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges and plays a central role in the