Lexington native wins journalism honor for Ohio University classwork
MANSFIELD – The rural graveyards Eric Boll would pass during his boyhood helped earn him a journalism award this spring after the Ohio University student reported on their upkeep.
“It definitely made me more confident in my reporting,” the sophomore from Lexington said after placing among the top 20 in the Multimedia Innovative Storytelling category of the Hearst Journalism Awards.
His article, “The Forgotten Cemeteries of Richland County,” was published Nov. 24, 2020, by WOUB Public Media, which touts itself as being “an experiential-learning unit of Ohio University’s Scripps College of Communication.”
The Hearst Journalism Awards were created in 1960 to provide support, encouragement and assistance to journalism programs and students at the university level, according to a news release from Ohio University. Winners of the competition receive scholarships as well as grants for the university they are representing.
‘It’s been journalism nonstop’
Boll’s life path had been preparing him for the award for longer than he ever realized.
He was born in southern Ohio, then his family moved to Richland County when he was a toddler. Hid dad worked at Camp Nuhop, which specializes in helping special-needs children. His mom was a speech therapist. He went to Lexington schools.
“I was a dinosaur kid,” Boll remembered of his childhood. “I thought being a paleontologist would be cool.”
As he grew a little older, his career plans slowly changed.
“Like most kids, I went through my astronaut and cop phase,” Boll said.
Then it was chemistry. Or, maybe forensics. It didn’t matter just yet — he was in high school by then and was discovering new documentaries to watch and reading as many articles as he could find.
“I would spend most of my summer holed up in my room reading stories,” Boll recalled. “That’s really what led me toward journalism.”
He shadowed a journalist one day during his junior year of high school.
“From there, it’s been journalism nonstop,” Boll said.
Third-generation Bobcat
Fortunately, the experience came right as he was preparing to apply for college. He always knew he would probably study in Athens.
“I’m a third-generation Bobcat,” Boll explained. “Both my grandfather and my mom went there.”
But what if he wasn’t accepted?
“If I didn’t get into OU, I wasn’t going to go into journalism at all,” Boll admitted.
He got in, though, and quickly started reporting for The Post, the student newspaper at Ohio University. It was basic event coverage at first, but then he started digging in a little deeper.
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“Probably the biggest story I did was an analysis in enrollment trends in universities across the state,” Boll said.
He pulled enrollment numbers from each of Ohio’s state universities by placing public records requests.
The experience got him exciting about other in-depth pieces, but it was March 2020 and the COVID pandemic had reached southern Ohio.
“That threw everything into a rut,” Boll said.
Still learning remotely
The novel coronavirus threw his routine into a spin that hasn’t slowed in more than a year.
“None of my classes right now are in-person,” Boll said. “Everything is kind of completely remote.”
During the height of the pandemic, the young reporter needed to find a way to write news that was relevant, but remote. That’s when he decided to cover ways the honor guard of the 179th Airlift Wing at Mansfield-Lahm Regional Airport had found to navigate funerals during the pandemic.
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“That’s kind of what got me looking toward cemeteries,” Boll said.
He enrolled in a class for the 2020 fall semester that taught him the fundamentals of online journalism. He learned about building websites and creating multimedia packages.
“The class was structured, but we had a lot of creativity,” Boll said.
Study of rural graveyards
One of his classmates decided to report on how a chili cook-off was organized during the pandemic. He pondered ideas a while more, but decided he wanted to continue the trend of honoring the dead during a time of global sorrow.
“I knew some people in the RichHistory Alliance,” Boll said.
Those folks encouraged him to contact the Ohio Genealogical Society as well as caretakers of rural cemeteries in the Mansfield area.
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He delved into the maintenance of rural Richland County graveyards, restoration of gravestones and how those projects are funded.
“Start to finish it was three to four weeks,” Boll said of his reporting.
He recorded video of his interviews, took photos of the graveyards and wrote an article that explained the issues in detail.
“I got to definitely do some fun visualizations with the story,” Boll said.
Award came as a surprise
When the article was done, he moved on to his next project.
“To be honest I had forgotten it had even been submitted it for a Hearst Award,” Boll said.
Weeks had passed and the sophomore was studying new topics. But one afternoon, he got out of class and checked his email — he was a finalist.
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“I think I actually yelled ‘Yes!’ or something,” Boll admitted.
He tied for 15th place nationally with two other students. He wasn’t given a plaque and no banquets were held, but the young writer was definitely recognized by his university.
“There was a press release issued by the school about it,” Boll said. “A couple professors congratulated me on it.”
Award has given him confidence
The award has made him confident that he’s on the right track when it comes to producing quality journalism. He wants to do it the rest of his life, and has already taken the next step on that path.
This spring, he took a position with the FloSports network.
“They report on various levels of distance running, track, basketball, soccer and just about any sport,” Boll said.
He has been focusing on high school track and field, writing features and covering meets.
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“It’s very exciting,” Boll said. “It worked out perfectly because I ran cross country in high school and did track, so I had good knowledge for it.”
It’s a gig he plans to continue until he gets to move back to Athens after the spring semester. Then he will get back to some of his more heavy-hitting journalism pieces.
“I’m going to try to pitch a couple of freelance stories to a few papers in southern Ohio,” Boll said. “That’s kind of my plan for the summer right now.”
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