MC students win nine TCCJA awards for student publicationsOctober 26, 2018

During the October 2018 Texas Community College Journalism Association convention, MC students were recognized for outstanding writing and photography.  The event was held on the campus of Texas A&M at Commerce University.

The top winners were Chris Amaya and Lacey Harper with a second place for column writing and Anthony Harris for a non-journalism story. The joint editor’s column, published in the MC Press newspaper, was titled, “Hey Folks, print ain’t dead,” and the non-journalism story, published in the MC Tableau literary magazine, was titled, “The Chessmen.”

The only dual winner was Valerie Walden with a third place and honorable mention for editorial cartoons published in the MC Press. Her cartoons were titled, “Cowabunga,” about having swords/knives on campus, and “Students Need,” about students’ need for tuition funds.

Third place awards were earned by Nathan Olivas for sports writing, Josh Frazier for column writing, Ryan Keithley for editorial writing and the staff for magazine cover. The sports stories were about coverage of the MC women’s basketball and the golf team. The column was titled, “A Touch of Magic,” and the editorial was titled, “432…Rape.”

An honorable mention was won by Cade Michael for non-journalism story that was titled, “Accepting the Need.” It was published in the MC Tableau.

“I am proud of these students, who must meet strict deadlines for publications that do not wait for late turn-ins as multiple-thousand-dollar printing contracts are on the line,” Templeton said. “We are the only commercial-production academic program on campus.”

Templeton has served as treasurer of the statewide TCCJA for 13 years and helped transfer the organization headquarters to the University of North Texas from Texas State University at this convention. Attending the convention with him were Publications Lab instructor Mary-Margaret Peterson Baragon and seven students. They also attended the Texas State Fair in Dallas following the convention events and published a photo-journalism package about it.