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Contact: Ann Hatch
214-378-1819; ahatch@dcccd.edu

For immediate release — May 25, 2017

(DALLAS) — Four Dallas County Community College District student newspapers (and their staff members) won multiple honors during the 2017 Texas Intercollegiate Press Association conference held recently in Dallas. Competing with other college and university newspaper staffs across the state, student journalists from the Brookhaven Courier, Eastfield Et Cetera, North Lake News-Register and Richland Chronicle brought home bragging rights for the next year. 

Literary magazine staff members — for The Windmill, Brookhaven College; The Alternative, Eastfield College; and Duck Soup and Blazer Magazine at North Lake College — won awards as well.

The three-day event offered journalism students a chance to compete in live events, sit in on critiques of their work, attend a variety of field-specific workshops and network with professionals and their peers. This year’s attendance broke a record with 547 students participating from 47 colleges and universities across Texas.

Established 1909, TIPA is the oldest and largest collegiate press association of its kind in the United States.

Setting another school record, the Brookhaven Courier earned 36 TIPA awards this year, five more than they received in 2016. The staff’s efforts and accomplishments have grown since 2012 when they won six awards, then eight in 2013, followed by 17 in 2014. Staff members won six awards this year in “live contests” (work done on site at the conference). Other categories cover previously published work; volume 10 of the Brookhaven Courier won first place in the “Best of Show” contest, which took top honors over more than 15 other schools’ best issues this year.

“It goes without saying that I am beyond proud of our students’ work. We truly have a remarkable staff and one of the best student-run newspapers in the state,” said Daniel Rodrigue, the Courier’s advisor. 

First-place honors for the Brookhaven Courier included: Best of Show and two-person photo essay in the on-site “live contest”; general column and editorial in the newspaper “previously published” contest; and essay for The Windmill literary magazine. Staffers won second- and third-place awards and honorable mentions, too, in categories such as photo illustration, editorial cartoon, illustration, picture story, feature story, information graphic, sports feature, headline writing, magazine design, spot commercials and more.

The Eastfield College student media team from The Et Cetera and The Alternative won 32 awards during the 2017 TIPA conference; 11 of those students attended workshops and competed in live journalism contests. Three students placed in the “live contests”; the newspaper’s managing editor, James Hartley, was awarded a $400 scholarship, too.

“Our newspaper staff works long hours and strives to meet professional standards in their work,” said Elizabeth Langton, their advisor. “I am delighted to see them recognized for excellence in what can sometimes seem like a thankless job, especially in our current political climate. They are exceptional budding journalists.”

The staff took six first-place awards this year in live feature writing, feature photo, feature story, literary magazine cover design, literary magazine feature photo and literary magazine poem. Their second- and third-place awards and honorable mentions included recognition in categories like news feature, information graphic, sports action photo, sports action feature, live radio announcing, feature page design, feature photo, opinion page design, news story, special section and others. 

The Et Cetera newspaper staff also earned Best of Show in the less-than-weekly newspaper category.

Staff members from the North Lake News-Register, Duck Soup and Blazer Magazine brought home 26 TIPA awards; nine students and three advisors from the college attended the conference. North Lake competed in a division which included these colleges and universities: Mary Hardin-Baylor, Midland, Incarnate Word, Panola, Trinity Valley, Northeast Texas, St. Mary’s, Sul Ross, Tarleton, West Texas A&M and Texas A&M-Galveston. 

“We are proud to be counted among the many colleges across the state that work with young, aspiring journalists,” said Kathleen Stockmier, the News-Register’s advisor. “Many (other colleges) have lost their programs over the years for one reason or another, but DCCCD continues to support this field, and we are grateful for that.”

First-place awards for North Lake’s publications included: newspaper news feature and feature page design, and literary magazine short story. The newspaper received second- and third-place awards and honorable mentions in categories that included television production, TV documentary, TV news non-feature, Page One design, photo illustration, single subject presentation, ad design and others.

Members of the Richland College student media team earned 17 individual and team honors for previously-published work and on-site live contests during the 2017 TIPA conference in Dallas. Those awards included honors for newspaper, television and radio content for the Richland Chronicle, KDUX web radio and KDUX-TV. The team competed in division two, which includes two- and four-year colleges and universities that produce weekly newspapers with enrollment levels in the top half of all competing schools.

“TIPA affords our student journalists the opportunity to compete with counterparts from all over the state of Texas in both two- and four-year programs,” said Erica Edwards, faculty member and student media advisor. “It’s consistently gratifying to see them successfully ply their journalistic skills in real-world situations. We’re very pleased and proud of our students’ accomplishments.”

Richland’s first- and second-place honors were garnered in these categories: Page One design, news feature story, sports news story, TV news writing, editorial cartoon and newspaper ad design. Other awards came in these categories: sports column, sports action photo, radio single public affairs program, radio overall excellence, television public affairs program, newspaper photo illustration and others.

For more information, contact Ann Hatch in the DCCCD office of public and governmental affairs at ahatch@dcccd.edu or at 214-378-1819.

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