EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. — The Alestle won 13 awards last Feb. 21, at the annual Illinois College Press Association conference. At the Chicago conference, the Alestle earned four first-place awards, placed in six other categories and earned three honorable mentions.
Former Alestle Copy Editor Michelle Beard won first place in the state in the editorial cartoon category for her piece “‘Tis the season for overlooked holidays.”
The Alestle competed with 37 Illinois colleges and universities in 15 open categories. Additionally, the Alestle competed in 18 categories against 13 non-daily student newspapers on campuses with more than 4,000 students including Columbia College in Chicago, Loyola University, University of Illinois Springfield, DePaul University and others.
Lifestyles Editor Caitlin Grove won a first place award in the Features Story category for “A picture is worth a thousand words: Student brings his world of photography to campus.” Grove also won an honorable mention in Feature Page design for “Metro East Eats Fall Favorites.”
Photo Editor Christian K. Lee won first place in the Spot News Photo category for his work covering protests in Ferguson, Mo. Former Editor-in-Chief Alexis Cortes, former Lifestyles Editor Karen Martin and Editor-in-Chief Hailey Huffines won first place in the News Story category for their piece “A kiss, selfie & invitation to talk about God: Evangelist elicits unique responses from students.”
Alestle Managing Editor Mady O’Reilly brought home second place in Headline Writing for “Budget cuts cause hang ups: Campus departments lose office phones.”
Lee won two second-place awards — in the Photo Essay and Feature Photo categories for his coverage of the protests in Ferguson, Mo. and for “In case you missed it: Fair St. Louis,” respectively. Lee also won an honorable mention in the Photo Essay category for “Protests Arise From Grand Jury Decision In Ferguson.”
Former Editor-in-Chief Alexis Cortes won third place in the In-depth Reporting category for “We should probably discuss the future of the museum,” a piece about the future of the university museum.
Former Photo Editor Brian Armea won two third-place awards in the Sports Photo and General News Photo categories for his photos accompanying the stories “Men’s basketball ends four-game skid” and “A kiss, selfie & invitation to talk about God.”
Alestle Reporter Puja Mehta won an honorable mention in In-Depth Reporting for her piece “Budget cuts cause hang ups.”
“I’m proud of this year and last year’s staffs for such a wide variety of first through third place awards. They did some important work in in-depth reporting and photography this past year, and the awards reflect that hard work and more,”
– Alestle Program Director Tammy Merrett said.
“And the fact that we brought home more awards than in recent years is great news as well.
More than 1,250 entries in the competition were judged for excellence by members of the Illinois Press Association and working journalists across the country.
The Alestle competes nationally against many other newspapers from across the country. Statewide, the Alestle competes regularly against such student newspapers and schools as the Bradley Scout at Bradley University, Chicago Weekly at the University of Chicago, the Columbia Chronicle at Columbia College, DePaulia at DePaul University, Chicago Flame at the University of Illinois-Chicago, the Journal at University of Illinois-Springfield, the Loyola Phoenix at Loyola University and the Independent at Northeastern Illinois University.
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