Colonnade wins big at GCPA

     The Colonnade, the official student newspaper of Georgia College & State University, won 12 awards at a statewide conference Feb. 3.
     The Georgia College Press Association held The Better Newspaper Contest in Macon.  GCPA is an organization designed to promote and maintain high standards of excellence within the collegiate journalism community.
     Jennifer Farmer, GCPA coordinator, planned the conference, which included informative workshops along with the awards.
     “This is a great time for students to not only expand on their own position at the paper but to learn something new,” Farmer said.
     The Colonnade won first place in the most honored General Excellence category for the second consecutive year.  The newspaper also received first in General Advertising Excellence, Layout and Design Excellence, Improvement and Campus Community Service Editorial Excellence.
     Brian Shreve, Tyler Smith and Will Godfrey took home individual awards.  Shreve placed first for Best Feature Story.  Smith also placed in the Best Feature Story category, taking third.  Godfrey earned third for Best News Photograph.
     “The awards are to honor the hard work and dedication of some of Georgia’s brightest journalism students,” Farmer explained.
     The GCPA has 27 other participating colleges in Georgia.  Berry, Emory, Georgia Southern and Georgia State are a few of the competing schools.
     Tyler Smith, editor in chief, is pleased with the outcome of the weekend’s events.
     “We were very happy about all the awards.  Last year we won about the same amount, and I think that consistency shows how good of a staff we have,” Smith said.
     Smith also noted the reason behind The Colonnade’s success.
     “We have an extremely hard working staff who put in more work than most people realize.  Because of their dedication, we are able to put out a great paper every week, semester after semester,” Smith said.
     The Colonnade was first established in 1924.  The paper’s primary mission is to cover events and issues of importance to the campus community and to provide a forum for public debate and discussion. Working on the newspaper gives students an opportunity for hands-on experience in a variety of areas such as management, writing, advertising, editing, photography, design and publishing. The editors have the authority to make content decisions without censorship or advance approval. A faculty advisor is assigned to the newspaper.

For additional information about The Colonnade or the conference, contact Editor in Chief Tyler Smith at (478) 445-4511 or via e-mail at colonnade@gcsu.edu.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Feb 9 2007. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry