Newspaper brings home 21 awards

The Pioneer newspaper took home a record-breaking 21 awards at the annual Oklahoma Collegiate Media Association conference in Stillwater March 31.

Many two-year and four-year college newspaper and yearbook staffs from around the state attended the conference, held at Oklahoma State University.

2011 AWARD WINNERS

Award of Excellence: Overall Newspaper; Front Page Design.

Award of Merit: Online Newspaper.

Honorable Mention: Interior Page Design.

Morgan Beard: First Place, Feature Writing; Second Place, Sports Writing.

Jeremy Cloud: Second Place, Editorial Writing.

Justin Combs: First Place, News Writing.

Ethan Hendricks: First Place, Sports Writing; Third Place, Editorial Writing.

Christy Johnson: Second Place, Feature Photography; Third Place, Reviews.

Whitney Knight: Second Place, News Writing; Second Place, Reviews; Honorable Mention , Multimedia Storytelling.

Bishal Malla: Second Place, Feature Writing.

Jennifer Massey: First Place, Editorial Writing.

Rachel Morrison: First Place, Feature Photography.

Jennifer Pearsall: Third Place, Sports Photography.

Mark Smith: Third Place, News Writing.

Joey Stipek: Second Place, Investigative Reporting

This conference marked the 32nd year the Pioneer staff has attended.

The Pioneer staff brought home a 21 awards including six first-place awards in overall two-year newspaper for the eighth consecutive year, front-page design, news writing, editorial writing, feature writing, and sports writing under the 2-year school category and feature photography under the 2-and 4-year category.

Staff writer Morgan Beard, who won first place in feature writing, said placing in the conference was a great honor.

“To win first place for a couple of my stories was really surprising,” Beard said.

“It makes a guy feel good, you know, to be recognized for your work at that level.”

Beard also won second place for sports writing.

Online Editor Whitney Knight said she did not expect to win three awards.

“It was a huge shock to me,” Knight said.

“I was literally standing there in front of a room full of people with my mouth hanging open.”

Christy Johnson, staff writer, said she was thrilled to win two awards.

“I was surprised I won an award for photography because I am not a photographer,” she said. “I was very excited though.”

Editor Joey Stipek, who took second place in Investigative Reporting, said he is pleased with the results of the contest.

“I think overall the record breaking number of awards we won was a positive reflection of our journalism program, professors, and lab assistants,” Stipek said.

“I am very proud of all the people who won awards.”

Stipek and Knight, along OCCC graduate and former Pioneer lab assistant Chris Lusk, were also appointed to OCMA’s Student Advisory Board.

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