Students in the Journalism and Mass Communication Department won dozens of awards in print, radio and video at the annual Texas Intercollegiate Press Association convention in San Antonio last week.
The awards for previously submitted work included first place awards in sweepstakes to KACU, overall excellence to the producers of News at Noon and Gabi Powell received three first place awards for her work on the features page for the Optimist.
KACU’s Daniel Zepeda won first for his sportscast, Kaitlin Sacco received first for her Spot News, and Breylin Bectin received two first place awards, and a second and third place.
The production of the Ken Collums Show, the JMC Sportscast and the JMC newscast earned Honorable Mentions in the television category.
First place awards were also given for the Optimist’s online and video coverage of last year’s auto accident involving several students.
Former student Taylor Langston’s (’13) received first place in Breaking News Video for covering the auto accident and will move onto the national competition later this year.
In addition, Madeline Orr, next year’s Optimist editor, was elected parliamentarian of the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association.
ACU students also garnered six awards in the on-site competition, including Gabi Powell’s third place in Feature Writing, Brittany Jackson’s third place for Spanish News Writing, Matthew Sloan’s third place for Print Advertising, Austin Kilcullen’s Honorable Mention for News Photo and Shera Niemirowski’s Honorable Mention’s for TV Advertising and TV Announcing.
ACU competed at the Div. I level, putting them in company with Baylor, Texas Tech, Texas State, University of Houston, TCU, SMU, Texas A&M, and UT-Arlington.
The JMC Department has been competing at the Div. I level in TIPA for about 30 years.
Dr. Cheryl Bacon, professor and chair of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, also spoke on behalf of ACU alumni Max Lucado at the convention.
“We had some bright spots,” said Dr. Kenneth Pybus, associate professor of Jouralism and Mass Communications. “What was most heartening to me was that we excelled in writing, design and photography. That says to me we are emphasizing all aspects of modern journalism.”
