Crusader Brings Home the Silver

The Crusader newspaper staff won 24 individual awards and an overall Silver Medalist award for two-year newspapers at the Kansas Associated Collegiate Press convention in Hutchinson April 18-19. The staff also won a Bronze Medalist award in online for the newly redesigned CrusaderNews.com.

The Crusader is the student newspaper at Seward County Community College/ Area Technical School in Liberal.

Compared to other two-year newspapers in the state, the Crusader was second only to Johnson County Community College, who had 40 individual awards and won the All-Kansas award.

According to information provided by KACP for two-year colleges, Garden City had nine individual awards, Hutchinson had seven, Butler also had seven, Cowley had five and Pratt had one.

In addition to the awards ceremonies, a keynote address was given by Ellyn Anglotti, the interactivity editor of Poynter Online.

Student journalists could also attend three sessions out of the eight choices Monday morning. Twenty-two colleges, including 217 students, registered for the conference. Two-year newspaper staffs submitted 504 entries in 23 categories for competition.

The awards were given for work completed between February 2009 and February 2010.

Crusader staff members who attended the conference included editor-in-chief Morgan Allaman, news editor Dana Loewen, staff reporter Alfredo Anaya, entertainment editor Jose Rodriguez, sports writer Will Rector and online editor Deisi Barboza. Crusader adviser Anita Reed accompanied the group.

Allaman and former staff member Taylor Hugg won first place in infographics and Allaman and Barboza won second. Allaman also won a third place in news writing and an honorable mention in headline writing.

The Crusader swept the photo essay category with Anaya, Allaman and Rodriguez in first, Allaman, former staff member Alma Hidalgo and former editors Jessica Lulf and Chelsi Valdez in second and Allaman and Lulf in third.

Barboza won first place in interior page design. She also won the second-place award and an honorable mention in review writing.

In sports photography, Rector won first place and sports editor Rustin Watt won second place.

Watt also won second in headline writing, an honorable mention in feature photography and two honorable mentions in sports features.

Rector won third in news photography and second in sports column writing.

In the copy editing contest, Loewen earned third place and Rector received an honorable mention. This was an on-site contest with 48 students competing in the two-year and four-year categories.

Current staff member Miguel Campano won first in feature photography.

Valdez won third in front page design and an honorable mention in news photography.

Lulf and current staff member Zach Carpenter won third in series writing.

The winners for the category of special sections have yet to be announced by the judges.

The Crusader is the student-run newspaper of SCCC/ATS, with the student online at CrusaderNews.com. The paper prints bi-weekly, except during holidays and finals. Students on staff may be involved as club members or through journalism courses such as news writing and mass communications.

The current staff will host an end-of-year party for high school seniors or others who might be interested in being a part of the Crusader staff in the fall. The event will be at 6:30 p.m. Monday, May 10, at the college. Those interested should contact Anita Reed at 620-417-1459, [email protected] or the Crusader via Facebook.