Fearless Journalist Kaitlyn Schallhorn

Drumroll please…..the winner of the Leadership Institute’s 2014 employee of the year is Miss Kaitlyn Schallhorn.

Kaitlyn Schallhorn joined the Leadership Institute as a Campus Reform (CRO) reporter in February of 2014.

One of the first things Kaitlyn wrote for CRO was a 1,500 word exclusive report that uncovered a corrupt Black Panther professor, who was intimidating students, and involved in a graduation scandal that resulted in the resignation of the university’s chancellor.

But Kaitlyn’s crowning achievement has been her tireless work developing and implementing the Campus Reform Campus Correspondent Program. In less than one year, Kaitlyn grew the Campus Correspondent Program from just one to 22 correspondents.

The Campus Reform Campus Correspondent Program started with Lauren Cooley, a student at Furman University in South Carolina.

While at Furman, Cooley discovered and wrote about the University of South Carolina - Upstate using taxpayer dollars to host a “How to be a Lesbian in 10 Days or Less” symposium. After she broke the story on CampusReform.org, the school was forced to cancel the event.

Cooley’s victory was just the beginning of the program’s success. As the program grew, Samantha Reinis and Miller Thompson, both Clemson University campus correspondents, exposed an offensive mandatory student survey.

While the South Carolina school said the survey was to help curtail sexual assaults on campus, the survey asked personally invasive questions about the sex lives of students and faculty on campus.

Kaitlyn investigated the information and assisted the students in reporting the facts. Within six hours of the story being published on Campus Reform, Clemson withdrew the mandatory survey.

The story was carried by nearly every major news outlet, including The Washington Post, ESPN, and was even featured in the monologue for NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyer, a first for Campus Reform.

Because of Kaitlyn’s hard work, campus correspondents have been featured on national television programs exposing liberal bias on campus.

Lauren Clark, a junior at Arizona State University, has been featured on Fox News and Fox Business; Gabriella Morrongiello, a senior at George Washington University, has appeared on Fox News, One America News Network, and Sun News in Canada.

Because of her exceptional work ethic, fearless approach to journalism, and all that the Campus Correspondent Program has accomplished in 2014, I am proud to name Kaitlyn Schallhorn as the 2014 Leadership Institute Employee of the Year.