Staff of The Journal, the UIS student newspaper, won five awards in the non-daily 2016 Illinois College Press Association competition.
Awards were presented Saturday, Feb. 18, at a luncheon that capped a 1 ½- day ICPA convention at the Doubletree Hotel Magnificent Mile in Chicago.
Erica Thomas of Springfield, Journal photographer, won first-place for a sports photo she took of two players in action during a UIS men’s soccer game.
Alex Camp of Chicago, former Journal columnist and assistant editor for sports, won second-place for a spring 2016 column describing his concerns about returning to Chicago after earning his bachelor’s degree. Camp, now a graduate student in the UIS Public Affairs Reporting Program, received an honorable mention for a headline he wrote in fall 2016: “Hell freezes over: Cubs win the pennant.”
Also awarded honorable mentions:
- Megan Swett of O’Fallon, Illinois, Journal editor-in-chief, for the fall 2016 article, “Celebrating Queertober:
AroAce student discusses her identity, her relationships, and the LGBT+ community.”
- Former Journal reporter Jeff Burnett of Loves Park, Illinois, for a story about the Sangamon County Drug Court, which was published in the fall 2016 Journal magazine, Beyond.
Burnett is a graduate student in the Public Affairs Reporting Program.
More than 30 college newspapers from throughout the state are members of the ICPA, which holds a convention each year with workshops and a keynote address by professional journalists, and organizes the annual ICPA contest.
In the non-daily competition, The Journal competed against student newspapers from schools with enrollments of more than 4,000 students, including among others, DePaul, Columbia College, University of Chicago, SIU-Edwardsville, Bradley, Loyola, and the School of the Art Institute.
Professional journalists from different states served as judges for the 2016 ICPA competition.