Caption: Xavierite Staff and Awards Source: Xavierite
The Xavierite staff attended the Illinois College Press Association (ICPA) and won a total of 6 awards after over a decade of the last win. The conference took place on Feb. 16 and 17.
Different schools from Illinois attended to compete against each other. “I think the feeling of being a real newspaper was lost, and being able to attend put into perspective what we do and how important it is,” says Grace Van Cleave, Editor-In-Chief.
The Xavierite have been given the opportunity to learn from sessions, form connections, and create comfort in the newspaper scene.
During the conference different workshops had taken place to further help students improve their skills. Some workshops being: orientations, presentations, a photo contest, newspaper critiques, an ICPA Awards Luncheon, etc.
“Students got to network with industry professionals and their peers at other institutions. Building connections is what journalism is about,” states Peter Kreten, Director of Student Media.
Some workshops talked about how to incorporate investigative reporting on campus, budgeting, writing editorials in a beneficial way, social media management, etc.
The Xavierite submitted multiple writings and images to compete in the ICPA’s and won multiple awards. “I hope this provides them with the confidence that the work they are doing is important. Local news is fundamental to the health and democracy of the country,” explains Kreten.
The Xavierite staff has expressed their gratitude towards the staff and faculty at SXU. “I also want to give an even bigger thanks to the Communication professors, who never once wavered in their faith in us as journalists, we couldn’t do any of it without them,” says Van Cleave.
The Xavierite editorial board submitted an article entitled “SXU: Is it Still a Mercy Institution?”. The article gave voice to the community concerns and won the editorial board 1st place for the 2024 Award for Excellence in Illinois College Newspapers.
Van Cleave had won an honorable mention. She wrote an editorial on her beliefs about Western media outlets who mishandled their coverage of the Israeli occupation of Palestinians in Gaza. “Winning for honorable mention was really cool, but to follow that up with a first place award was almost unbelievable,” mentions Van Cleave.
Van Clave stated that she especially enjoyed the Editors’ roundtable discussion. During the discussion, editors from other schools talked about the things they struggle with or are most successful at. This puts into perspective that each student newspaper deals with similar issues, depending on the size of the school and staff.
Barbara Lunsford, Features Writer, had won an honorable mention for her feature’s photo of a restaurant she was reviewing. “Being recognized has shown me that I am improving little by little and that all of the hard work is worth it,” exclaims Lunsford.
Javell Sheppard, Xavierite Photographer, had submitted two General News photos of a peaceful protest at SXU. He won an award for each. Sheppard won 2nd place for one, and an Honorable mention for the other.
Sean Harris, Webmaster, had achieved 2nd place for General Excellence in the Web category.
The Xavierite staff winning awards creates a great look on resumes and helps find jobs to further extend their careers.
The Xavierite staff believes that attending the conference was beneficial to their younger staff. “I believe this will instill a lot of confidence into our younger staff and give them a new found sense of passion and pride for the power of press,” voices Van Cleave.
Keynote speaker, Eric Meyer, President and majority owner of the Marion County Record spoke on his office being raided in Aug. 2023. “Hearing a firsthand account of the dangers journalists face and how important freedom of the press is from such a high profile incident was a once in a lifetime experience,” expresses Nuala Hanlon, Deputy-In-Chief.
*Correction: This article was updated to fix a number of mistakes. 1. ICPA was incorrectly mislabeled. 2. The first place editorial article win was mislabeled.
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