IU Southeast students win 15 Society of Professional Journalists awards

24th June 2014

NEW ALBANY, Ind. (June 24, 2014) – Thirteen Indiana University Southeast journalism students and recent graduates were honored at the annual awards dinner of the Society of Professional Journalists Louisville Pro Chapter, winning more awards than any other college in the region.

All work was published in IU Southeast’s student news outlet, The Horizon (http://iushorizon.com). In total, the students took home 15 awards in journalistic writing, design, photography, online journalism and videography.

IU Southeast students pose for a photo at the annual awards dinner of the Society of Professional Journalists Louisville Pro Chapter.  Pictured, left to right: Joel Stinnett, Taylor Ferguson, Samantha Frazier, Aprile Rickert, Tina Reed and Bryan Jones.

IU Southeast students pose for a photo at the annual awards dinner of the Society of Professional Journalists Louisville Pro Chapter. Pictured, left to right: Joel Stinnett, Taylor Ferguson, Samantha Frazier, Aprile Rickert, Tina Reed and Bryan Jones.

“This was an especially competitive year,” said Adam Maksl, assistant professor of journalism and faculty adviser to The Horizon. “We are incredibly proud of our students, especially as they competed against much larger schools like U of L, Western Kentucky and the University of Kentucky.”

Maksl said that some of the award-winning work came from the fall of 2013, when The Horizon students launched a new tabloid-style newspaper and started to focus more on daily online updates. He said the awards recognize the hard work students do in telling the story of the campus community.

Aprile Rickert, editor-in-chief of The Horizon, won first place in news writing. She said that after putting so much work into redesigning The Horizon, she almost cried when she heard her name called.

“This truly means so much to me,” Rickert said. “Though we as journalists don’t do what we do to win awards, it’s nice to be recognized for our work. I am extremely proud of everyone at The Horizon, both my predecessors who showed me the way and the new curious minds we have. I continue to be impressed by the people I work with every day.”

The annual awards dinner not only recognizes college students, but also many area professional journalists. Professionals from nearly every news organization in Louisville were represented at the awards dinner, and students got to meet and network with them.

The Horizon is a multi-platform student-run news organization that serves as an experiential learning lab for journalism majors at IU Southeast. Non-journalism majors also often volunteer for the staff. Students on The Horizon learn and apply skills in information analysis, effective storytelling and principles of digital media.

The IU Southeast Journalism Program congratulates all student awards winners listed below for their work:

  • Stephen Allen (First place, Page Design)
  • Taylor Ferguson (Second place, Best Use of Video)
  • Samantha Frazier (First place, Graphic Illustration; Second place, News/Feature Photography)
  • Mychal Harris (Third place, Sports Photography)
  • Bryan Jones (Second place, Graphic Illustration)
  • Elijah Lossner (Second place, Best Use of Video)
  • Jims Porter (First place, Best Use of Video)
  • Tina Reed (Third place, Sports Story)
  • Aprile Rickert (First place, News Story)
  • Joel Stinnet (Second and Third place, Feature Story)
  • Adam Taylor (First place, Best Use of Video)
  • Sam Weber (First place, Sports Story; Second place, Sports Photography)
  • Hanna Woods (Third place, News/Feature Photography)

The Horizon staff also collectively won a second place award for Best Website.

For more information, contact Adam Maksl at amaksl@ius.edu or 812-941-2892.

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