The Spectator The independent student newspaper of Valdosta State University
The Spectator, VSU’s campus news organization, earned nine state-wide journalism awards at the Georgia College Press Association’s annual conference and ceremony on Friday, Feb 16.
GCPA hosts a conference every year in February. This year it was held at the University of Georgia in Athens at the Richard B. Russell Special Collections Library.
“The trip to GCPA is always a great opportunity for our staff to bond,” Kelsey Dickerson, The Spectator’s Editor-in-Chief, said. “GCPA is great because the editorial staff gets a chance to be in an environment that fosters journalistic collaboration in a way we might not get at home.”
At the conference, there was a plethora of sessions that student and professional journalists presented at UGA.
“This year, four members of our editorial staff, including myself, got to present on the state of the First Amendment on college and university campuses,” Dickerson said. “Seeing our peers take notes during our presentation and hearing them talk about how our presentation gave them ideas for their own newspaper was extremely rewarding.”
Friday afternoon, new board members were elected.
“Our sports editor, Juston Lewis, was elected as treasurer of the GCPA board, and one of our staff writers, Prince Robinson, got elected as a board member,” Dickerson said. “That was great because Prince in particular is really excited to get involved with GCPA and to collaborate with other student newspapers.”
The Spectator earned recognition for their outstanding work in their coverage of the VSU community. The awards earned by the Spectator included:
- Best News article – Objective: Gabe Burns – 1st Place
- Best Photo Essay: Seth Willard – 2nd Place
- Best Photograph – News: Seth Willard – 2nd Place
- Best Photograph – Sports: Seth Willard – 2nd Place
- Best Photograph – Editorial/Feature: Seth Willard – 3rd Place
- Best Feature article – Darla Dunning: 3rd Place
- Best Sports article: Juston Lewis – 3rd Place
- Community Service Award – Sports: The Spectator – 3rd Place
- Best Web-site: The Spectator – 2nd Place
“I was really glad The Spectator got to take home some awards from the GCPA conference this year,” Dickerson said. “The staff has been working very hard over the past year, especially with our transition to digital, and it was great for them to get some reaffirmation for everything they’ve been doing.”
Story by Bryce Decker, staff writer.
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