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Society of Professional Journalists’ Campus Chapter Wins Award

Colorado State University’s campus chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) is the proud winner of this year’s regional award as Outstanding Campus Chapter. The award was announced October 7th at the national SPJ convention in Washington, D.C. According to SPJ, the honor recognizes “outstanding programs and activities that enhance professionalism, thereby contributing service to the Society and the profession.”

CSU competes with 13 other campus chapters in SPJ region nine, which covers Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico.

“The CSU chapter was selected based on its depth of programming and its ability to recruit and retain members into the chapter. The chapter provides meaningful programming to journalism students,” said SPJ regional director Deb Hurley.

The CSU chapter is directed by Holly Wolcott. Wolcott is the full-time newsroom adviser to the Rocky Mountain Collegian and a part-time instructor in the Journalism and Technical Communication department.

“I think a big contributing factor to the success of the chapter and the interest of the students is the fact that we’re part of a national organization that represents and supports professional journalists. The success of this organization means that what we’re doing matters,” Wolcott said.

CSU’s campus SPJ chapter won the national first place award for outstanding student chapter in 2001, and earned outstanding regional chapter awards in 1995 and 2000. CSU students have earned dozens of individual SPJ awards at both the regional and national levels during the same period of time, as well as numerous awards from other journalism organizations. The list below represents journalism-related awards earned by student journalists during the past year, with many of these awards earned by staff members of the Student Media Department.

Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Awards (2006-2007)
- National competition:Ben Brune, first place in sports reporting.
- Regional Competition: Twenty seven awards including first place in student newspapers for the Rocky Mountain Collegian and first place in student magazines for College Avenue.

Denver Press Guild and Denver Press Club: (2006-2007)
- Rocky Mountain Collegian named “Best Student Newspaper” in Colorado.
- Ian Chambers earns Damon Runyon scholarship for storytelling

Columbia Scholastic Press Association National Awards: (2006-2007)
- Justin Sogge, First Place, Sports Photography
- Mike Donovan, Third Place Sports Column
- Tanner Bennett, Honorable Mention, Feature Photography
- Kate Dzintars, Third Place, Page Design

Broadcast Education Association National Awards: (2007)
- Ashton Metcalf, First Place, On-Air Personality, radio
- Steve Hendriksen, Second Place, On-air Personality, radio
- Baker Machado, Alex Hannum and Clifton Garrison, First Place, Specialty Show, radio
- Adam Hansen, Third Place, Speciality Show, radio

College Broadcasters, Inc., National Awards: (2006-2007)
- David Rickles, Jillian Oppegard, Verena Helfer, First Place Television -Documentary

William Randolph Hearst Foundation National Awards: (2006-2007)
-JP Eichmiller, Third Place, Feature Writing