“A Measure of Excellence: The Pulitzer Prize in International Reporting” sponsored by the International Communication Division and Community College Journalism Association was the last hurrah among the series of panels featuring Pulitzer-prize winning journalists on the last day of the convention.

Convention-goers found themselves in company with winning journalists who narrated stories about their careers, the countries they visited, their remarkable stories that gained them the attention of the Pulitzer, and their opinions about receiving the prize.

Among the panelist on Saturday were Michael Parks, who won the 1987 Pulitzer for his Los as part of the Newsday reporting team, received the award in 1974 for a 32-part collaborative investigation of the international flow of heroin from Turkey to New York.

The panelists said that the Pulitzer pushes journalists to work harder for quality stories. They said that it’s what keeps journalism vibrant, inspires students. Going out there, working hard, getting to the root of the story experiencing the same events that people abroad are experiencing, and writing a story with depth to tell readers what is happening in the world.

The panelists also discussed the issues of preparing for the stories, the personal and physical constraints that fell upon them during the strenuous process of covering such dangerous stories and the dilemmas they’ve encountered after achieving such an acclaim.

“You don’t wake up in the morning thinking that you’re gonna win a Pulitzer,” Parks said with a slight twang in his speech. “You wake up and think that you’re gonna do Pulitzer-level work.”

Parks said that one of the things that changed history was apartheid, and that the 21st century is very different from the 20th because of this event that changed not only people’s lives but also future course of a nation.

“If you view the struggle of apartheid as ping-pong, like ‘the government does this, the people do that’, it’s gonna be a one-sided story. But the story is not a ping-pong match. You get close and be a part of it and experience the same challenges,” Parks said.

Parks discussed the idea behind the Pulitzer, and what the award was recognizing. He also offered his ideas about what it took for journalists to win the award.

“It recognizes the ability and success of telling a story about a country and its people, with depth,” Parks said. “The story is not ping-pong match it’s the story of people struggling. I was where the struggle was, and that’s where the people were.”

With an engaging disposition, Parks rhetorically asks, “Does the Pulitzer really change your life?” Taking a moment to absorb the curious looks of the audience, he answers, “Yes, it does. You are expected to work at that level for the rest of your career.”

When describing the characteristic of a Pulitzer-winning piece, Parks said that a journalist doesn’t only have to work hard, but he or she also has to have a story. It’s the dream of any journalist to win an award with such honor, acclaim and hype.

“One’s duty is to the story and the people who need to know about it,” he said.

Parks said that the pep rally before the game is a good motivation for everyone in the newsroom. “He was able to use the Pulitzer leverage to improve the quality of the paper.”

On another note, Payne described the Pulitzer as “a blessing and a curse. If you win a Pulitzer young, it can throw you off. The Pulitzer can ruin your life if you’re not careful.”

He also said that more than just news, the story was a project—in reference to the series that he and his colleagues worked on.

“The idea was to do Pulitzer level work. It’s not the prize, but the quality of work,” he said. “You can’t control the prize but you can control the work.”

When he encounters young reporters at the beginning of their careers winning the Pulitzer, Payne said that he tells them, “Remember this is only the beginning. Get back to work. We need you.”