Three Elon students were named national winners in the Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Awards contest May 5.
Senior journalism major Morgan Little won the Online Opinion & Commentary competition for three staff editorials written for The Pendulum Online titled “The journey’s no reward,” “Forgive me father, for I am drunk” and “Surfing the Web in the kiddie pool.”
Senior broadcast journalism major Randy Gyllenhaal and senior business major Drake Springer won the General News Reporting competition for a piece they produced for Phoenix14News titled “Driven to Distraction.”
Judges for the national Mark of Excellence Awards choose one national winner and two national finalists in every competition category. Winners and finalists had to place first in one of the SPJ’s 12 regional competitions earlier this year. Little, Gyllenhaal and Springer were already honored at the SPJ Region 2 conference in College Park, Md., March 27.
Little, Gyllenhaal and Springer will receive their national awards Monday, Oct. 4, at the Mark of Excellence Awards Luncheon, which occurs during the 2010 SPJ Convention & National Journalism Conference at The Planet Hollywood Hotel in Las Vegas.
Last year, current Pendulum editor in chief Pam Richter was named a national finalist for Online Opinion & Commentary for columns she wrote for The Greensboro News & Record’s Web site.