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Awards Add New Chapter to Student Media Success Story
23 Honors Include Mercury Newspaper’s ‘Best of Show’ Award for Second Year in a Row

Student Media Awards 2012

UT Dallas student media winners included (from left) Advisor Misty Hawley, Shane Damico, Irene Morse, Finny Philip, Becky Aguilar, Ben Hawkins, Anwesha Bhattacharjee, Paul Dang, Lauren Sechrist, Ryan Henry, Cathryn Ploehn, Bobby Karalla, Hector Gutierrez, Jessica Higgins, Jessica Melton, Nieves Reyes, Rex Park, advisor Chad Thomas, and Albert Ramirez.  (Photo by Akshay Harsh)

Three UT Dallas student media outlets—A Modest Proposal, The Mercury and UTD-TV—recently took home a combined 23 achievement awards at the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association (TIPA) convention. The honors included The Mercury’s second consecutive “best of show” award.

In all, The Mercury captured eight awards and eight honorable mentions at the 102nd annual TIPA convention, held in Corpus Christi last month.  UTD-TV earned four awards and an honorable mention, including two firsts in the TV news story and TV news writing categories.  A Modest Proposal won two awards, both for illustration.

Chad Thomas, director of student media at the University, said he was excited to see the students’ efforts recognized.

UT Dallas' The Mercury

Student  Media Award Winners

UT Dallas students who work on the UTD Mercury, UTD-TV and A Modest Proposal brought home 23 awards from the recent Texas Intercollegiate Press Association.

THE MERCURY

1st Place

Best of Show – The Mercury

2nd place

Overall Excellence – The Mercury
News Story – Shane Damico
Feature Photo – Akshay Harshe

3rd place

Picture Story – Albert Ramirez, Christopher Wang, Lauren Marek
Sports Page Design – Bobby Karalla
Ad Design – Cara Curley
Sports Writing (on-site) – Bobby Karalla

 Honorable Mention

Sports Column – Bobby Karalla
Single Subject Presentation – Shane Damico
Sports Feature Photo – Ben Hawkins
Sports Action Photo – Ben Hawkins
Feature Photo – Christopher Wang
Illustration – Cathryn Ploehn
Feature Photo (on-site) – Albert Ramirez
Headline Writing (on-site) – Anwesha Bhattacharjee


 

UTD-TV

1st place

News Story – Jessica Higgins
TV News Writing (on-site) – Jessica Higgins

 2nd place

Best Overall Newscast – UTD-TV

3rd place

News Non-Feature – Nathan Mitchell, Jonathan Boyd

 Honorable Mention

Sports Feature Story – Boe Arraya, Fernando Labastida, Erick Lopez


 

A MODEST PROPOSAL

2nd place

Editorial Cartoon (on-site) – Becky Aguilar

3rd place

General Magazine Illustration – Jeffrey Miranda

“We have some extremely hard-working and talented folks in student media, and earning awards at the state level while competing against some of the best and brightest in Texas is motivation for our students and staff alike,” Thomas said. “Our media groups are improving every day, and I genuinely believe that they are on the fast track to becoming marquee names in their fields.”

The best of show award went to The Mercury for “outstanding quality and performance in Texas college media” in Division 3. The award recognized the overall excellence of a single edition of the newspaper, which was submitted at the time of the convention.

The paper’s other awards were all in Division 2, including honors in the news story, picture story, ad design, sports writing, sports page design, headline writing and photo illustration categories, as well as in several photo categories.

Thomas said The Mercury competed in Division 2 for the first time this year. Previously the staff had competed in lower divisions, based exclusively on their frequency of publication (biweekly) rather than the size of the university. They competed against several other UT System schools this year and other similarly sized universities.

“For The Mercury to compete two divisions higher than it has in recent memory, if not for the first time ever, and still be very successful is a testament to the quality students we have at UT Dallas,” Thomas said. “They’re constantly raising the bar.”

The Mercury placed second in “overall excellence,” competing against 15 other schools, including UT Tyler, UTEP, UT Brownsville, SFA, Sam Houston, Texas Woman’s University and Lamar University, among others.

UTD-TV competed for just the second time ever at TIPA. Thomas said there were no divisions for television competition—it is simply 16 schools with television programs competing against each other. UTD-TV placed second in the best overall newscast category, competing against  large schools including UT Austin, TCU, UNT, Texas State, Texas Wesleyan, UT Brownsville and UT Pan-Am.

Jessica Higgins, news director at UTD-TV and a sophomore psychology major, said TIPA was an extraordinary experience.

“I was glad for the opportunity to bond with my staff as well as the staff of the other media organizations,” Higgins said. “The sessions I attended were very interesting. I learned a lot that I will bring back to UT Dallas to make me a better reporter and a better leader with UTD-TV.

“Winning the awards was a tremendous honor, and I am so incredibly proud of my staff,” Higgins added. “We all work so hard day in and day out, and it’s nice to have your accomplishments recognized. UTD-TV has come so far already, and TIPA has inspired us to work even harder, to be even better.”

Misty Hawley, assistant director of student media and the student broadcast groupadvisor, said the news groups were poised for greatness.

“After last year’s honorable mention, the TV students were determined to place at TIPA. Despite being so young, they shattered expectations. The hard work paid off, and now UTD-TV is focused on that first place award next year.”

Established in 1909, TIPA is the oldest and largest press association of its kind in the United States. The organization works to open channels of communication and cooperation among student media programs at two- and-four-year colleges and universities in Texas.

PHOTO (credit: Akshay Harshe)

Student media at UT Dallas collected a combined 23 awards at the 2012 TIPA convention. Pictured left to right are: Advisor Misty Hawley, Shane Damico, Irene Morse, Finny Philip, Becky Aguilar, Ben Hawkins, Anwesha Bhattacharjee, Paul Dang, Lauren Sechrist, Ryan Henry, Cathryn Ploehn, Bobby Karalla, Hector Gutierrez, Jessica Higgins, Jessica Melton, Nieves Reyes, Rex Park, advisor Chad Thomas, and Albert Ramirez.

 

SIDEBAR

The Mercury

1st place – Best of Show

2nd place – Overall Excellence

2nd place – News Story – Shane Damico

2nd place – Feature Photo – Akshay Harshe

3rd place – Picture Story – Albert Ramirez, Christopher Wang, Lauren Marek

3rd place – Sports Page Design – Bobby Karalla

3rd place – Ad Design – Cara Curley

3rd place – Sports Writing (on-site competition) – Bobby Karalla

Honorable Mention – Sports Column – Bobby Karalla

Honorable Mention – Single Subject Presentation – Shane Damico

Honorable Mention – Sports Feature Photo – Ben Hawkins

Honorable Mention – Sports Action Photo – Ben Hawkins

Honorable Mention – Feature Photo – Christopher Wang

Honorable Mention – Illustration – Cathryn Ploehn

Honorable Mention – Feature Photo (on-site competition) – Albert Ramirez

Honorable Mention – Headline Writing (on-site competition) – Anwesha Bhattacharjee

 

UTD-TV

1st place – News Story – Jessica Higgins

1st place – TV News Writing (on-site competition) – Jessica Higgins

2nd place – Best Overall Newscast

3rd place – News Non-Feature – Nathan Mitchell, Jonathan Boyd

Honorable Mention – Sports Feature Story – Boe Arraya, Fernando Labastida, Erick Lopez

 

A Modest Proposal

2nd place – Editorial Cartoon (on-site competition) – Becky Aguilar

3rd place – General Magazine: Illustration – Jeffrey Miranda

Media Contact: The Office of Media Relations, UT Dallas, (972) 883-2155, [email protected].

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