The Brookhaven Courier staff scored awards in numerous categories at ACP/CMA Fall National College Media Convention in Atlanta.
Dallas College students from Brookhaven, Eastfield, Northlake and Richland campuses gathered to hear from well-known speakers, attend workshops and newspaper critiques and receive recognition for their hard work.
The convention, which took place Oct. 30-Nov. 2, was held by the Associated Collegiate Press and College Media Association.
Emmy Hardy, The Courier’s editor-in-chief, earned first place for Best Enterprise Coverage of Diversity.
“It’s always nice to see your work recognized, but I feel particularly proud of this award,” Hardy said. “It was a very personal story about a very important topic to put out there. I’m overjoyed people have connected with it.”
Andrea Olan, former managing editor for The Courier, won third place for Best Column for two-year schools under the Reporting Pinnacles category.
Students and staff alike had the option of choosing which workshops to attend, with topics such as copy editing, design, writing and discussions on how to navigate the workplace.
Many colleges and universities across the country attended.
One workshop titled Women’s Work: How to Lead the Media, covered how to navigate being a woman in a leadership position.
The workshop was led by Naome Seifu, a producer at CNN, and Kendal Trammell, a senior producer at CNN.
Editor-in-Grief was a workshop hosted by Michale Koretzky, adviser to the University Press. Koretzky taught students effective leadership tactics in the newsroom.
Another workshop titled Breaking into Freelance Magazine Writing gave attendees step-by-step actions to take to be a successful magazine writer.
Copy-Editing for the Next Generation and Beyond Campus: Covering the Community were also offered at the convention.
Each day there was a keynote presentation held in the grand ballroom with featured speakers. On Nov. 1, there was a keynote presentation featuring Charles M. Blow, a New York Times opinion columnist.
Accompanied by two students from Spelman College, Blow discussed his nontraditional path to becoming a writer at The Times and unpacked his method for writing and covering sensitive topics such as police brutality. He also discussed how he was hired at The New York Times.
Another keynote presentation which took place on Oct. 31 was titled Legends: Women Who Defined Mainstream TV, with Monica Pearson, a former news anchor for WSB-TV, and Alexis Scott, former publisher for the Atlanta Daily World.
Pearson talked with Scott about the impact, importance and journey of the Atlanta Daily World, the oldest Black newspaper in Atlanta, which was founded in 1928 by Scott’s grandfather, William Alexander Scott II, and eventually passed down to Alexis.
Alexis discussed how she shaped ADW to be what it is today, and how her grandfather inspired her boldness to do so.
The Courier students said the conference was an enjoyable learning experience
Ivy Nguyen, layout editor for The Courier, said: “The experience was very exciting. Since this was my first conference, I felt out of my element, but I ended up learning a lot and meeting nice people.”
