As one of the judges for the America’s Future Foundation’s College Blogger Contest, I’m very happy to congratulate Dartmouth College senior Joe Malchow, founder of Dartblog, as the winner of the $10,000 prize. All of the finalists were excellent, which makes Joe’s victory all the more impressive.

A second-place prize of $1,000 went to the staff blog of The Oregon Commentator and third place was given to Surveillance State.

All of the finalists deserve recognition for their hard work and outstanding efforts. Thinking back to my college years, I remember how difficult it was to run the student newspaper at Ithaca with a staff of 100 writers, editors, photographers, designers and an ad team. What impressed me about these blogs, particularly the three winners, was the solid reporting that rivals what many college papers produce.

The list of the other finalists is below.

• California Patriot Blog (Univeristy of California, Berkeley)
• The Claremont Conservative (Claremont McKenna College)
• The Critical Badger (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
• GOP3.com (Marquette University)
• The Irish Rover (University of Notre Dame)
• On Life and Lybberty (Brigham Young University & University College London)
• Panther Talk Live (University of Wisconsin РMilwaukee)