The Collegian staff received 13 awards during the South Carolina Press Association’s annual meetings and awards presentation Friday, including third place for the paper’s general excellence.

Staff of The Collegian, Clemson’s The Tiger, USC’s The Daily Gamecock and others attended the meetings hosted by Francis Marion University in Florence.

The SCPA represents 13 collegiate newspapers in the state, and the association’s competitions are separated between colleges with under 5,000 undergraduate students and those with over 5,000. The Collegian participates in the under 5,000 division. 

The meetings are annually organized to celebrate and award collegiate journalism in South Carolina. Attending schools participated in panels and roundtable discussions on topics such as the importance of real news and careers in journalism.

The event’s speakers were journalists from the SCPA, the Florence Morning News and The Carolina Forest Chronicle of Myrtle Beach.

Entries into the association’s competitions were from issues of The Collegian published in 2016.

Students could submit entries into any of 26 different categories including writing, design and photography.

Jordin Harbin, comic artist for The Collegian, won both first and third place in the cartoon or illustration category.

Jacob Clipperton, layout editor, won third place in page one design and second place in specialty page design.

Amy Sheeter and Rebecca Snyder won first place in specialty page design.

Stephen Dysert, photo editor, won first place for his photograph of students placing flags in honor of the Sept. 11, 2001 victims. 

Photographers Snyder and Ian Nichols won second and third place respectively for sports photographs.

Nichols and Snyder also won first and second place awards respectively for their photo stories of Caviar & Bananas and Greenville coffee shops.

Elisa Crawley won third place for her column addressing racial profiling, and Abby Sivyer, editor of The Collegian, won first place for her arts and entertainment story covering last year’s performance of Hamlet.

Clipperton said he found the roundtable discussion with fellow designers helpful.

“[The moderator] specifically pointed out the importance of tight photo cropping and keeping faces large,” Clipperton said. 

Clipperton said the discussion was also liberating because it made him realize other papers experience similar design frustratations, such as not having photos on time and designs needing to change last minute.

“We were able to share solutions we had discovered,” Clipperton said.

Wright said hearing from young journalists during the panel discussion on a journalist’s life after graduation was very helpful.

“The speakers emphasized the importance of staying passionate about journalism,” Wright said.
“Journalism is a service to the public, and you should focus on how you’re helping others—even in being the bearer of bad news at times.
     “As a future journalist, I was inspired to dig for the truth and report it as unbiasedly as possible, because that’s how I can serve the people—give them the truth.”

Sivyer expressed her satisfaction with the staff’s performance this year.

“It’s exciting to see our staff members recognized for the great work they’ve done this year,” Sivyer said. “Their dedication has paid off.”