Foghorn News staffers recently returned from one of their state conventions with more than 20 awards. A dozen students attended the Texas Community College Journalism Association conference and contest Oct. 14 in Kemah.
The Foghorn News brought home 21 awards total, 19 from work published during the 2015-16 academic year and two from the live contest. Students started the day at NASA with half sitting in on a news conference about Mars and the rest receiving a tour of the full-scale mockup training facility.
Associate Professor of Journalism Robert Muilenburg, who serves as one of the Foghorn’s advisers, was impressed with his students.
“The awards we win at these state competitions are a reflection of the talent and hard work by our students,” Muilenburg said. “You really can’t overstate the sacrifice and dedication it takes to put out a high-quality publication week after week and semester after semester.”
Reporter Brittany Claramunt placed second in the TV news writing live contest and Adriana King won honorable mention in live editorial writing. In the previously published contest, News Editor Colby Farr won first in newspaper sports news and honorable mention in newspaper news writing.
“Winning an award was very special to me personally, because it was some of the first stories that I had written for the Foghorn,” Farr said. “I really hope to improve in my writing during the rest of my career.”
Ten two-year schools attended the conference.
“TCCJA member schools are among the best community college publications in nation, which is proven every year by the amount of national awards,” Muilenburg said. “These conferences are great opportunity for our students to compete with other colleges from around the state and introduce new journalism students to a very rich and thriving state journalism organization.”
The Foghorn News as a whole won honorable mention in general excellence in newspaper.
TCCJA Winners
Staff: first place, headline writing; honorable mention, website; honorable mention, overall excellence newspaper; honorable mention, overall excellence magazine
Cayce Berryman: first place, magazine journalism story; third place, magazine layout/design; honorable mention, broadcast video news
Samantha Douty: honorable mention, in-depth or investigative story; honorable mention, sports feature
Meagan Falcon: second place, feature photo; third place, broadcast video news; honorable mention, sports feature
Antelmo Aguirre: first place, editorial cartoon; second place, editorial cartoon; second place, magazine cover design
Adriana King: honorable mention, editorial writing
Colby Farr: first place, sports news; honorable mention, news writing
Brittany Claramunt: second place, live TV news writing
C. Robert Gonzalez: third place, sports photo
Patrick Luce: honorable mention, sports action photo
