Media Students Earn 60 Awards at Annual State Association Conference
Students (from left) Ibuki Hinohara, Herald photo editor; Shailey Wooldridge, Herald news editor; Elijah Templeton, Herald life editor; Benjamin McDowell, Herald staff writer; Jerry Don Burton, Herald editor-in-chief; Laila Casiano, Herald opinion editor; Will Livingston, Herald sports editor; and Tristan Harlen, ASU-TV station manager, celebrate with their awards received at ACMA.
BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Arkansas State University’s student media outlets from the School of Media and Journalism earned 60 awards at the Arkansas College Media Association’s annual spring conference and awards banquet.
The Herald, A-State’s student newspaper, won 52 awards, including Website of the Year and honorable mention as Newspaper of the Year in the General Excellence categories.
“This is exciting!” Herald adviser Sandra Combs said. “The students worked hard and it showed. They had big smiles and great hope that they would come away with a big win.”
Retiring after 17 years of service to A-State, Combs has served as adviser to The Herald since 2015. Gretchen Hunt of NEA Premiere Magazine assisted as Herald adviser in the fall 2024 semester.
“The Herald staff members are already putting into practice real-world journalism skills as they produce a weekly newspaper and maintain a website and social media accounts, and they are doing it very well,” Hunt said. “They are already learning that having multiple skill sets is advantageous and provides them with the ability to present the news in a variety of forms. Obviously, I’m very proud of them for the work they do and the accolades they have earned.”
ASU-TV and Red Wolf Radio won four awards each. ASU-TV adviser Dustin Sullivan also praised the student work.
“We are proud and honored that students involved with ASU-TV and Red Wolf Radio were recognized for their hard work and efforts in providing professional and entertaining content for our viewers and listeners,” Sullivan said. “We thank ACMA for the opportunity to have our students recognized as award winners.”
Students attending the conference hosted by Northwest Arkansas Community College went through breakout sessions covering media job opportunities, sports reporting, audio reporting/producing, the business beat, magazine visual storytelling, entertainment, breaking TV news in digital formats, yearbook publication, and magazines in the digital age.
Award winners included:
Laila Casiano of Paragould won first place for newspaper election/political coverage, newspaper headlines, online arts and entertainment article, social media breaking news, and social media promotion; second place for audio podcast, online election/political coverage, online meeting/speech coverage, editorial page layout and online feature writing; third place for in-depth news and editorial page layout; and honorable mention for online newswriting.
Shailey Wooldridge of Caraway won second place for newspaper meeting/speech coverage, newspaper newswriting, online breaking news (within 24 hours), online election/political coverage, and online personality profile; and third place for online breaking news (within 24 hours) and online meeting/speech coverage.
Caroline Averitt of Jonesboro won first place for newspaper meeting/speech coverage and online headlines; second place for newspaper personality profile, in-depth news, and social media promotion; and honorable mention for newspaper feature page layout.
Former editor Rachel Rudd of Searcy won first place for online news photo, second place for newspaper election/political coverage, newspaper feature writing, and online feature writing, as well as third place for online personality profile.
Editor-in-Chief Jerry Don Burton of Vanndale won first place for newspaper meeting/speech coverage; second place for in-depth news; and third place for editorials/commentary/blogs and online breaking news (within 24 hours).
Anna Cox of Paragould won first place for personality profile and sports feature writing, and second place for online breaking news (within 24 hours), and newspaper meeting/speech coverage; and third place for sports page layout.
Will Livingston of Hot Springs won first place for sports feature writing; second place for sports feature writing; and honorable mention in online editorials/commentary/blogs.
Shelby Russom of Paragould won second place for newspaper news photo, online news photo, and audio podcast.
Elijah Templeton of Jonesboro won second place for newspaper review writing and honorable mention for online arts and entertainment review and online arts and entertainment article.
Abigail Leggett of Jonesboro won first place for online sports photo and third place for newspaper sports photo.
Allie Carson of Jonesboro won third place for online headlines, and Jack Douglas of Paragould won third place for online news photo.
Ibuki Hinohara of Nagano, Japan, won second place for online sports photo, and Benjamin McDowell of Wynne won second place for newspaper sports story.
Luke Morse of Jonesboro won first place for best specialty music show, while MacKenzie White of Trumann won first place for best radio documentary.
Emily Pilkington of Clinton won second place for best radio documentary. and Christian Sandoval of Jonesboro won second place for best specialty music show.
ASU-TV’s Tristan Harlen, Cooper Melder and Caton Marsh, all of Cabot, won first place in television sports reporting. Harlen and Marsh also took first place in television sports feature.
ASU-TV’s Makenzie Cutler of Harrison, Carson Campbell of Jonesboro, Pilkington and Christian Wilcox of Jackson, Tenn., won second place for television political coverage.
ASU-TV’s Colby Thompson of Conway, Jack Roach of Paragould, Markell McCoy of Clarksdale, Miss., and Mehr Aslam of Garden West Karachi, Pakistan, won third place in television feature.
