The Society of Professional Journalists Region 2 Mark of Excellence award winners included several students and alumni.
The Pendulum, the newspaper of the Elon News Network, was named the Best All-Around Non-Daily Student Newspaper in Region 2 of the Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Awards competition April 14 in Richmond, Virginia.
Below is a list of the regional winners:
- The Pendulum for Best All-Around Non-Daily Newspaper for editions dated April 26, 2017, Sept. 20, 2017, and Nov. 8, 2017
- Alex Hager ’19 for Breaking News Reporting for “Demonstrators gather at RDU airport to protest immigration ban executive order”
- Diego Pineda ’19 for General News Writing for “Sexual assault: It happens here, too”
- Tommy Hamzik ’17 for Sports Writing for “Four years later, senior women’s lacrosse players see impact left on program”
- Olivia Zayas Ryan ’18 for General Column Writing for “Where I’m really from is here,” “Mental illness affects everyone—let’s take it seriously” and “Homophobia is still alive and well—we cannot look away”
- Stephanie Hays ’18 and Caroline Brehman ’18 for Photo Illustration for “Move-In Edition” front page
The regional finalists were:
- “Elon Local News” for Best All-Around Television Newscast for a show aired Oct. 2, 2017
- “ELN Morning” for Best All-Around Television Newscast for a show aired Dec. 7, 2017
- Bryan Anderson ’18 for General News Reporting for “Elon administration grapples with legal demands, safety concern of immigration ban”
- Emmanuel Morgan ’19 for General News Reporting for “Who are the candidates?”
- Diego Pineda ’19 for Feature Writing for “Two years after accident, former Elon student Gabriela Rosales shows promising recovery”
- Emmanuel Morgan ’19 for Sports Writing for “Inside the revival of Elon’s football program”
- Alex Simon ’17 for Sports Writing for “A surprising change”
- Stephanie Ntim ’18 for General Column Writing for “The Guardian Angels of Elon University,” “Technology doesn’t control us” and “Remember Dr. King’s words, ‘How long, not long’”
- Emmanuel Morgan ’19 for Sports Column Writing for “Don’t kneel out of the conversation,” “After Duke game, Elon has to place value on the little things” and “It’s time we take Elon football seriously”
- Alex Toma ’20 and Diego Pineda ’19 for Photo Illustration for “Falling into dance”
- AJ Mandell ’19 for Sports Photography for “Swoope’s scorching start”
- Alex Simon ’17 for Sports Photography for “Going Dancing”
- Perry Elyaderani ’18 for Television General News Reporting for “A Look into the Dark Web”
SPJ Region 2 Mark of Excellence Awards are given in newspaper, TV, radio and online categories. Awards are presented only to those who place in the top three in the region. Regional winners move on to the national competition, at which time they will compete with 11 other first-place regional winners.
Region 2 comprises North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Delaware. Results of the Region 2 competition were revealed at the regional conference luncheon in Richmond, where ENN Executive Director Emmanuel Morgan ’19 accepted the awards.
Last year, Hays was named a national SPJ winner for Photo Illustration. In 2016, Leena Dahal ’17 (General Column Writing), Alex Simon ’17 (Sports Writing) and Al Drago ’15 (General News Photography and Sports Photography) won national honors.
Drago (Breaking News Photography, General News Photography and Feature Photography), along with Michael Bodley ’16 (Breaking News Reporting), took home national awards in 2015.