Northwest Mississippi Community College’s student newspaper, “The Ranger Rocket,” took home several journalism awards in the Mississippi Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest, Student Division at the 10th annual O.C. McDavid Conference in Jackson on March 27.
Showing off the honors are T.J. Jernigan of Olive Branch, editor; Kyle Robinzine of Batesville, cartoonist; Journalism Instructor Renate Ferreira of Oxford who is coordinator of Student Publications; Sandra Umberger, staff reporter of Como and Geoffrey Dunn, staff reporter of Coldwater. Not pictured is student photographer Justin Ford of Memphis. (Photo by LaJuan Tallo)
Northwest received several first place awards including: Best Feature Story, Sandra Umberger of Como; Best Cartoon, Kyle Robinzine of Batesville; and Best Feature Photograph, Justin Ford of Memphis. The “Ranger Rocket” also received first place awards for Best Miscellaneous Ad and Best Front Page. Geoffrey Dunn of Coldwater won a third place award for Best Feature Photograph. Ford also picked up a second place for Best Feature Photograph and a third place award for Best Sports Photograph. The newspaper won a third place for Best Miscellaneous Ad and General Excellence.
“These students are all impressive in their own way and an asset to the ‘Ranger Rocket,’ “ said Renate Ferreira, coordinator of student publications and journalism instructor.
“The communications field is a challenging industry that requires a high level of dedication and a lot of hard work. These students have a made a fantastic start to their journalism careers being a part of the ‘Ranger Rocket,’” Ferreira said.
“I am especially proud of this year’s editor, T.J. Jernigan. He is a role model to the staff,” said Ferreira.
Northwest Journalism students competed in the Community and Junior College Division with students from East Central Community College, Itawamba Community College, Jones County Junior College and Copiah - Lincoln Community College.
The speakers for the conference were Pulitzer-prize nominated cartoonist Marshall Ramsey of the “Clarion Ledger” and Dr. Samir Husni, chair of the Department of Journalism at the University of Mississippi. The O.C. McDavid conference is sponsored by the Mississippi Press Association Education Foundation. It is named for the late McDavid, former managing editor of the “Jackson Daily News.”
For more information about the Journalism program at Northwest, e-mail Ferreira at rferreira@northwestms.edu.
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