Students bring home 38 awards from annual TIPA conference

Midwestern State University students won 38 awards, including 12 first-place finishes, at the annual Texas Intercollegiate Press Association conference, held March 22-24 in San Antonio.

MSU students won 11 second-place awards, nine third-place awards and six honorable mentions.

In the on-site competitions, 10 MSU students won awards, and MSU won the overall sweepstakes.

The Wichitan took third place in the newspaper general excellence category and third place in the overall newspaper sweepstakes.

Voices took third place in the general excellence category for literary magazines, along with a fifth place finish in the overall literary magazine sweepstakes.

TV-2 placed fourth among college television stations in the state, while the yearbook, The Wai-Kun, placed fifth overall.

MSU senior Amanda Veitenheimer was elected TIPA parliamentarian for the 2007-2008 school year.

Mass Communication Department Chair Dr. Jim Sernoe said the awards reflect the diversity of the curriculum:  "Because our degree requirements are so broad, our students are able to excel in several areas.  For example, two students whose main interest is broadcasting won awards in advertising.  A public relations student won an award for radio newswriting."

Sernoe also said the size of the program and university are deceiving.  "We have shown year after year that our students can compete with students from huge schools like UT-Austin," Sernoe said.  "It isn't always true that bigger schools have higher quality programs than smaller schools."

Students earning first place awards included: 

Rhonda Boelen, newspaper feature story; Jeremy Brown, Melissa Newton and Katy Poole, television documentary; Adrian McCandless, newspaper single subject presentation; Adrian McCandless, Hershel Self and Zeno Ferguson, newspaper picture story; Randall Mobley, television advertising; Trey Reed, newspaper sports news story; Hershel Self, newspaper photo illustration; Carrie Sullivan, editorial writing; Carrie Sullivan, literary magazine short story; Alexandria Villarreal, radio advertising; Alexandria Villarreal, television announcing; and Alexandria Villarreal, television newswriting.

Students earning second place awards included: 

Carly Burres, radio newswriting; Krystle Carey, newspaper front page design; Iggy Cruz, newspaper sports feature story; Elizabeth Hawley, literary magazine cover design; Clint Kirby, television feature story; Clint Kirby, television sportswriting; Randall Mobley, radio announcing; Randall Mobley, radio sportswriting; Konnie Sewell, copy editing; Kalen Tubbs, yearbook sports action photo; Kalen Tubbs, yearbook sports feature photo.

Students earning third place awards included: 

Ashley Jackson, yearbook sports copy; Adrian McCandless, newspaper sports feature photo; Adrian McCandless, newspaper sports feature story; Tiffany Mercer, Jenny Morrison, Derik Schneider and Lydia Valdez, television production; Josh Mujica, newspaper feature story; Trey Reed, newspaper sports page design; Amy Taylor, television non-feature story; Alexandria Villarreal, television audition tape; SunKyu Yoo-Norris, newspaper illustration.

Students earning honorable mention awards included: 

Abigail Carter, Randall Mobley, Konnie Sewell and Alexandria Villarreal, television PSA; Adrian McCandless, newspaper sports action photo; Trey Reed, newspaper sports news story; Garolyn Sparks, yearbook feature photo; Kalen Tubbs, yearbook sports action photo; Kalen Tubbs, Ashley Jackson, Brianna McClane and Zeno Ferguson, yearbook feature/student life package.

TIPA is a statewide organization of approximately 75 collegiate journalism and mass communication programs.