As a longtime sports reporter and baseball fan, Andrew Carter (Communication ’03) encourages aspiring journalists to take a swing at what he calls “at-bat” opportunities in life. Last fall, he followed his own advice when he stepped up to the plate to work on what would become a Pulitzer Prize-winning series of articles. 

Less than a year into his position as a senior reporter at the Chicago Tribune, Carter was still adjusting to life in the Windy City and primarily covering sports. But when Immigration and Customs Enforcement came to Chicago in September 2025 as part of Operation Midway Blitz, he stepped up to help report on the frequent tensions between officers and local residents. Carter wrote several stories documenting apartment raids and the activities of clergy members who gathered every Friday to pray for detainees at a detention facility. 

In December Carter took on the gargantuan project of summarizing all of the stories he and his team had produced — roughly 35,000 words of copy as well as hundreds of hours of body camera footage, social media posts and other content — into a single article. 

“The idea was to have an expansive, all-in-one story that could hold up historically,” Carter explained. “One that, 20 or 30 years from now, if you’re going to go back and read one story about what had taken place here over these two months, it would be this story.”

If you’re a journalist and you really value doing work that makes a difference, the ultimate goal is to win a Pulitzer Prize.

The result was a 9,500-word multimedia article titled “64 Days in Chicago: The Story of Operation Midway Blitz.” Carter spent most of December incorporating his colleagues’ reports, reviewing video footage and packaging it all together in a logical sequence.

“It was the hardest story I’ve ever done, by far — number one because I felt a lot of pressure to do it justice and get it right,” Carter said. “But second, my colleagues did such an amazing job with the reporting. I felt pain about having to cut stuff or not having room for different things. I wanted to use all of it because I was so appreciative of people who opened up to us, spent time with us and shared their story. It was a huge challenge to whittle that down and to come up with a streamlined narrative.”

Carter and the Chicago Tribune staff were honored for their work on May 4, when they received the Pulitzer Prize in Local Reporting. The annual award recognizes distinguished coverage of significant issues of concern to a local community, city or state and demonstrates originality and continuous community connection, using any available journalistic tool.

“If you’re a journalist and you really value doing work that makes a difference, the ultimate goal is to win a Pulitzer Prize,” Carter said. “It’s an amazing feeling, especially to have accomplished it with so many special teammates at the Tribune who have embraced me since I got here.”

His Story Began at NC State

Before joining the Chicago Tribune, Carter worked for the News & Observer in his hometown of Raleigh for 13 years. However, he has been perfecting his craft since he was an undergraduate at NC State. He completed his first news writing and storytelling assignments for Rod Cockshutt, an English professor emeritus who was one of his first mentors and inspired his interest in journalism. 

Although Carter majored in communication, he jokes that he also majored in Technician. He worked on the student newspaper staff for three years, serving as assistant sports editor during his final year. Carter credits NC State for offering him at-bat opportunities he wouldn’t have had at schools with larger journalism programs. While working for the Technician, he got press access to sporting events at NC State’s Carter-Finley Stadium and Reynolds Coliseum. He also got to cover Wolfpack sports in historic venues at other institutions, such as Duke University’s Cameron Indoor Stadium and Ohio State University’s Ohio Stadium. One of the biggest highlights of his Technician career was getting to cover legendary NC State quarterback Phillip Rivers’ senior year.

“I think Technician has always kind of punched above its weight class despite NC State not having a traditional journalism school,” Carter said. “There’s always been a lot of writing talent and a lot of great photographers, and we had a fantastic staff. I learned a lot from them.

“When I talk to college students today, something I always emphasize is the importance of getting involved in clubs and organizations that represent your interests and professional goals,” he continued. “I had wanted to be a sports writer since I was a little kid, and State afforded me the chance to try it out and take chances.”

With the recent recognition, Carter joins an exclusive club of people with NC State ties who’ve been recognized by the Pulitzer Prizes, including Michael Biesecker, who was part of a team at the Associated Press that won the 2026 Pulitzer Prize in International Reporting.

Past recipients include Dan Neil (M.A. English Literature ’86), who received the 2004 Pulitzer Prize in Criticism for his automobile review columns in the Los Angeles Times. In addition, Sylvia Adcock ’81 was part of the team that won the Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Reporting in 1997 for Newsday‘s coverage of the crash of TWA Flight 800 in New York. 

Other past finalists have included Chris Hondros ’93, who was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Breaking News Photography in 2004 for his work in Liberia. In 2020, Dorianne Laux, English professor emeritus and former Creative Writing Program director, was a Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Poetry for her work Only as the Day Is Long: New and Selected Poems.