Student newspaper named best in state

The Eagle’s strong showing, which follows runner-up finishes in 2009 and 2010, was bolstered by 24 individual awards, including 10 first places.

Complementing the website’s second-place honor, site designer Kevin Oleksy of Chadron, a junior, won seven individual digital medium awards for his work on csceagle.com. He earned first place for multimedia features and use of digital technology, and shared best site design honors with fellow staff member Vera Ulitina of Tula, Russia.

The Eagle staff won first place for series-special sections with its “Vancouver View” special section published in August 2010. It also took first place in the newspaper category for layout and design.

Sophomore T.J. Thomson of Denver, The Eagle’s executive editor, swept the top two places in the two-page, special spread design category for layouts devoted to Black History Month and the CSC International Club’s Food Tasting Party. He also took first place in news photograph and sports photograph, second place in feature photograph, and earned honorable mention in the spot news-hard news category.

Ulitina added to the digital media design honor with first place in the newspaper division’s feature photograph category.

On top of the web design awards, Oleksy took first place in the headlines category and third place in the spot news-hard news category.

Sophomore Sara Labor of Hot Springs, S.D., lifestyles editor, finished second behind Oleksy for headlines.

Former editor Savanna Wick, who graduated in December 2010, was second place in page-one layout and design.

Sophomore Julie Davis of Denver, sports editor, earned honorable mention for sports story while senior Kinley Q. Nichols of Littleton, Colo., chief photographer, earned honorable mention for sports photograph.

Michael D. Kennedy, CSC journalism instructor and adviser, said he was proud of the students’ accomplishments.

“Without question, I’m proud of them,” Kennedy said. “They are a solid team. They’re smart, hard-working, selfless, tenacious and the most dedicated bunch of student-journalists that I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. From academic to athletic achievement, Chadron State has many students and student groups to be proud of. The Eagle staff is among those elite groups, not just for what they earned Saturday, but for the way they comport themselves individually and as representatives of the Communication and Social Sciences Department, the School of Liberal Arts and Chadron State College.”

The awards, which covered work between Feb. 28, 2010, and March 1, 2011, were selected by professional journalist and multi-media specialists from outside the state. The best overall award for each medium is determined by a point system based on awards from the various categories.

The Wayne Stater of Wayne State College was second among newspapers while the top award for digital medium went to Doane College.

Other members of the NCMA include Peru State College, Hastings College, Nebraska Wesleyan University, Western Nebraska Community College and Northeast Community College.