As a train chugs along the track heading a little over five hours north from Carbondale to Chicago, eight of us staff members from the Daily Egyptian are excitedly waiting to reach the windy city for the annual Illinois College Press Association conference.
Accompanied on the trip by our adviser Alee Quick and professor Molly Parker, the conference took place on Feb. 28 to March 1 and was filled with plenty of learning opportunities and experiences, as well as the opportunity to connect with fellow student journalists.
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The Daily Egyptian staff brought home 28 awards from entries in numerous categories. Across the contest, 863 unique entries were entered by colleges around the state and judged by 42 judges.
A second place finish in both print and web general excellence marked an improvement from last year where the DE placed third in print and received an honorable mention in web. As well as being awarded a second place sweepstakes award for medium schools, meaning the DE won the second most awards across the medium schools.
While photo editor Enan Chediak and student managing editor Dominique Martinez-Powell competed in a photo competition, the rest of us attended various breakout sessions that dove into different topics of journalism. Ranging from sports reporting to website design, we all split up and listened to the different topics, taking notes on ways we can improve and how other college newspapers operate.
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Molly closed out Friday’s conference as a keynote speaker alongside journalist Beth Hunsdorfer for the final session of the evening. The two Capitol News Illinois investigative reporters discussed investigative journalism throughout their careers and how to best navigate the process. Students and advisers alike gathered in the ballroom to hear them speak and asked plenty of questions to keep the conversation flowing. We, of course, sat at the closest table to the stage in support. Once the event was over, Molly received plenty of questions from students and I keep recalling Ryan Grieser turning to me to quietly and jokingly say “you guys can not have her, she’s our professor!” to the other students.
The trip wasn’t entirely conferences and learning either. I talked everyone into checking out this karaoke place I found if we had some free time. Following the end of Friday’s conferences, we braced ourselves for the windy, cold Chicago streets and walked a few blocks over to check it out. However, despite all our preparations on choosing karaoke songs and getting excited about the food menu… our karaoke appearance didn’t exactly work out. So, instead we opted for a nearby pizza place at the recommendation of our Chicago native, staff videographer Will Elliott, which turned out to be pretty tasty.
At the white round tables in the hotel’s ballroom for the award luncheon on Saturday, tall, colorful candles were lit and we interrupted the chatter of the room to sing and celebrate news editor Carly Gist’s 20th birthday. As Carly pointed out, we also celebrated Alee’s official start date as our permanent faculty managing editor. We cut the cake, which somehow perfectly fed all of us with none leftover (shoutout to Molly for her excellent cake purchasing and cutting skills), and celebrated both of these exciting moments during the award ceremony.
This whole experience makes me proud. I’m proud of my staff for their all-around effort in the last year and for our improvement of reporting on not only campus events but now in the community. Awards or not, the entire staff of the Daily Egyptian has and continues to put the effort in their reporting. I think our success at this conference each year embodies that effort. I am beyond grateful to be here and to work with everyone.
We owe a large thank you to SIU alum Steve Warnelis for sponsoring our trip and providing us this opportunity to connect with other student journalists around the state and to become more proficient in journalism. This is something we look forward to each year and it would not be possible without Steve and the School of Journalism department.
Following the conference’s end, we quickly raced to Union Station to board the train and found ourselves at the very back of the train watching the train tracks left behind us as we headed home. The city passed us by out the back window until we were once more surrounded by the rural fields of southern Illinois. We returned to Carbondale with new knowledge of how to improve our journalism as well as some pretty nice awards to note our effort from the last year.
The Daily Egyptian won the following awards at the conference:
Four first place finishes:
- Front Page Layout, Daily Egyptian Staff and Peyton Cook
- Photo Essay, Lylee Gibbs
- Headline writing, Brandyn Wilcoxen
- Sports Column, Ryan Grieser
10 second place finishes:
- Print General Excellence, Daily Egyptian Staff
- Web General Excellence, Daily Egyptian Staff
- Sweepstakes, Daily Egyptian Staff
- Best Print Advertisement, Peyton Cook
- Feature Story, Lylee Gibbs
- Sports News Story, Brandyn Wilcoxen
- Sports Feature, Ryan Grieser
- In-depth Reporting, Carly Gist
- Headline Writing, Ryan Grieser
- Feature Photo, Lylee Gibbs
Four third place finishes:
- Graphic Illustration, Dominique Martinez-Powell
- Sports Page Design, Yarauseth Zavala
- Opinion Column, Carly Gist
- Sports Game, Brandyn Wilcoxen
10 honorable mentions:
- Digital Ad, Lane Frost
- Feature Page Design, Peyton Cook
- Sports News Story, Brandyn Wilcoxen
- Sports Game Story, Ryan Grieser
- Sports Feature Story, Lylee Gibbs
- Sports Column, Ryan Grieser
- Diversity Equity and Inclusion Coverage, Enan Chediak, Simeon Hardley and Jamilah Lewis
- Photo Essay, Simeon Hardley
- Sports Photo, Lylee Gibbs
- General News Photo, Dominique Martinez-Powell
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