Students pose with awards at the Southeast Journalism Conference Friday. (Courtesy: Brittany Clark)
University of Mississippi students collected 27 awards at the 30th-annual Southeast Journalism Conference this weekend, including Grand Championship Team for on-site competitions and College Journalist of the Year.
“These awards are important,” said Will Norton Jr., dean of the Meek School of Journalism and New Media. “They build a reputation for the Meek School and the Student Media Center.”
More importantly, however, Norton said the awards reflect the students’ hard work and faculty’s solid instruction and indicate the Meek School is headed in the right direction.
Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee hosted the 2016 conference, attended by 324 students and faculty from 27 colleges across the southeastern United States. Ole Miss will host the 2017 conference.
Sudu Upadhyay, awarded first place and $1,000 for his entry in the SEJC Best of the South College Journalist of the Year contest, was NewsWatch Manager for the 2014-2015 academic year.
Upadhyay’s entry included a resume, an essay about journalism commitment and responsibility, recommendation letters, and examples of his work that included his NewsWatch enterprising coverage of the IHL board’s Dan Jones contract decision and a documentary about a UM engineering project in Togo, West Africa.
“It’s a lot of hard work,” Upadhyay said. “A lot of nights where you don’t sleep. But when you love something as much as I love my job, it’s a good time.”
The Student Media Center team’s received seven awards in the SEJC on-site competitions earned it the grand championship. Points are based on universities’ first, second, and third-place finishes.
First-place winners included Daily Mississippian Editor-in-Chief Logan Kirkland for sports photography, Caroline Callaway for newspaper design and the team of Tori Olker and Victoria Lanza for public relations.
Kirkland said the Daily Mississippian owed any success to the leadership of Director of Student Media Patricia Thompson and the other journalism faculty. The newspaper staff collected five on-site awards, as well as nine awards in the SEJC Best of the South contests.
“It makes all of the tears, late nights and hard work worth it to be recognized,” Kirkland said.
In addition to Upadhyay’s first-place finish in College Journalist of the Year, UM students won 19 more awards in the Best of the South contests. The 441 entries in the contests, student work from mid-November 2014 through mid-November 2015, and were submitted by 35 universities throughout the region.
Other first-place winners in Best of the South included Kelly Savage for television hard news reporting, Jake Thrasher for news-editorial artist/illustrator, Dylan Rubino for sports writing and Logan Kirkland for special event reporting/editing. Rebel Radio staff won three Best of the South awards.
Browning Stubbs, NewsWatch manager and third-place winner in the television journalist category, said he challenged his staff to put their best efforts into their news coverage this year. The NewWatch crew took home four Best of the South awards and an on-site award.
“This is a huge step for NewsWatch Ole Miss as our reporters have set the precedent for what’s expected when you step foot in the front door of the S. Gale Denley Student Media Center,” Stubbs said. “This is an accomplishment we will never forget.”
Full list of awards:
