award

Shanghai – September 28, 2026 -- Mikala Sposito, a 21-year-old welding student from Washtenaw Community College, won a bronze medal at the 48th WorldSkills Competition, becoming the first woman to represent the United States in the Welding skill category.

Nine-member U.S. delegation competes against global field of 1,400

The 2026 WorldSkills USA team, comprising nine SkillsUSA state champions, competed Sept. 22-27 in Shanghai against skilled professionals from 73 countries and regions across 64 skill categories, including seven new emerging occupations.

Two U.S. competitors secure Medal for Excellence with 700+ point scores

Elizabeth Brown, 22, of Missouri, earned the Medal for Excellence in Cooking, ranking among 19 of 45 competitors globally to score above 700 points on the WorldSkills scale. Brown's preparation was backed by Unilever, ZWILLING and Smithfield Foods.

New York City – September 25, 2026 -- The Conference Board has been named one of the Best Places to Work in New York City by Crain's New York Business, marking the fourth consecutive year the global think tank has earned the distinction.

Crain's ranking relies on employee surveys and employer data

The recognition, compiled in partnership with independent research firm Best Companies Group, is based on employee surveys and employer questionnaires assessing company culture, leadership, advancement opportunities, and benefits.

Gothenburg – – September 24, 2026 -- Professor Bojie Fu has won the 2026 Volvo Environment Prize for research that reversed decades of severe soil erosion across China's Loess Plateau, one of the world's largest landscape-restoration efforts. The prize, awarded by an independent foundation since 1990, carries SEK 1.5 million along with a diploma and glass sculpture, to be presented at a Stockholm ceremony on September 24, 2026.

San Diego – September 24, 2026 -- CollegeSource CEO Kerry Cooper has been named a Best Global EdTech Leader Finalist in the 2026 Tech Edvocate Awards, recognizing more than five decades of work on transfer credit and degree-planning technology for higher education institutions.

Cooper has led CollegeSource since 2005 after joining the firm in 1973

Cooper's tenure spans the transition from printed college catalogs to cloud-based platforms and current AI-enabled tools used by registrars and academic advisors. CollegeSource serves more than 2,100 institutions and millions of students through its transfer and degree-completion products.

Baton Rouge – September 19, 2026 -- The Inner Circle has named Asia Alexus Alexander, M.S.M., a Pinnacle Professional of The Year for her work in marketing education. Alexander teaches marketing at Southern University and A&M College, where she structures coursework around live case studies, industry guest speakers, and analytics-driven projects to replicate the pace of modern marketing agencies.

Curriculum design mirrors agency workflows to prepare graduates for immediate industry contribution.

New York – September 19, 2026 -- The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) has named six winners of the 2026 ACLS Open Access Book Prizes and Arcadia Open Access Publishing Awards, distributing a combined $300,000 across humanities disciplines.

Six titles split $50,000 prizes each across authors and publishers

Each winning author receives a $20,000 cash award, while the corresponding publisher receives a $30,000 grant to fund immediate open access publication of at least two new books. Winners span Anthropology, Environmental Humanities, History, Literary/Media Studies, Multimodal scholarship, and Political Science categories, selected from shortlists of five finalists per category by a judging panel.

Berlin – September 16, 2026 -- WELT chief reporter Ibrahim Naber won the Deutscher Fernsehpreis in the category "Best Presenter / Individual Achievement Information" on September 16, 2026, for his continuous frontline reporting from Ukraine.

Naber has covered Ukraine's front lines since Russia's 2022 invasion began

The WELT chief reporter has documented combat zones and the civilian toll of the war since the start of the Russian invasion in 2022. In autumn 2025, Naber, his producer and his cameraman were wounded during a research trip when a Russian drone struck their location.

ZDF presenter Markus Lanz cites Naber's persistence under direct threat in laudatory speech

ZDF moderator Markus Lanz, delivering the award laudation, said Naber had experienced death directly and that fear had become visible in his eyes after the drone strike, yet he continued reporting from both sides of the conflict without theatrics.

Mainz – September 10, 2026 -- German public broadcaster ZDF has shortlisted five debut novels for its 48th annual "aspekte" Literature Prize, a €10,000 award recognized as a launchpad for major literary careers since 1979.

Five debut novels advance to the final round

The finalists are Valeria Gordeev's "Die Zikade entschlüpft ihrer goldglänzenden Hülle" (S. Fischer), Clara Leinemann's "Gelbe Monster" (Suhrkamp), Martin Piekar's "Vom Fällen eines Stammbaums" (Rowohlt), Lilli Tollkien's "Mit beiden Händen den Himmel stützen" (Aufbau), and David Vajda's "Diamanten" (Hanser). Each title represents a different major German-language publishing house, underscoring the prize's reach across the industry's leading imprints.