"Amarillo College students brought home 23 awards, including several first prizes, from the Texas Community College Journalism Convention held Oct. 6 at the University of Texas at Arlington.
The annual convention brought together 137 students and media advisers. The day featured an on-site team multimedia competition, numerous media-related workshops and an awards banquet.
In the live on-site team multimedia competition, AC’s Sir Garen Grayson took home third prize for headline writing; Salvador Gutierrez and Sir Garen Grayson received honorable mention for the multimedia component and Stevi Breshears, Claire Ekas, Salvador Gutierrez, Sir Garen Grayson and Savannah Tarbet won honorable mention for multimedia team overall.
Other contests recognized work published over the past year in the college newspaper, “The Ranger,” the online news website and the college magazine, “AC Current.” The college received first prize for overall excellence for the magazine, as well as firsts for newspaper feature photo, cartoon, video sports story and open video production.
Students took home second prizes for magazine non-journalism story, magazine cover design, newspaper news writing, newspaper layout and design. Finally, AC won third prize for newspaper feature photo, newspaper in-depth story, newspaper layout, and design and video news, while receiving numerous honorable mentions.
“We are extremely proud of our students’ accomplishments,” Maddisun Fowler, student media adviser, said.
During the convention, students attended workshops on news writing, layout and design, photography and other topics and exchanged ideas with students from UTA and other Texas community colleges.
“The convention gave our students the chance to practice teamwork and multimedia reporting skills on deadline, learn from industry professionals and network with students from other colleges. It offered an invaluable educational experience,” said Jill Gibson, coordinator of the Matney Mass Media Program and associate dean of liberal arts.
Gibson noted that the spring 2017 edition of “AC Current” is nominated for two national awards, the College Media Association Pinnacle Award and the Associated Collegiate Press Pacemaker Award, which is collegiate journalism’s preeminent award. Winners will be announced at the end of October."
-Amarillo College
