March 18, 2022, GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The Collegiate, Grand Rapids Community College’s student newspaper, earned College Newspaper of the Year honors from the Michigan Press Association on Thursday.
The paper earned the top award in Division III in the College Better Newspaper Contest, and placed second in the Open Class – Online Newspaper category, finishing behind the University of Michigan’s Michigan Daily.
The GRCC students in April earned the Best News Website award in the 2021 Michigan Community College Press Association Competition for the third year in a row.
“It’s great to see multiple reporters bring home awards for their work,” former Collegiate Editor-in-Chief Sean Chase said in a story posted by the paper. “Winning back-to-back awards says a lot about the program as a whole and Jennifer Ackerman-Haywood’s leadership.”
The Collegiate won 13 other MPA awards during the virtual ceremony, including Chase receiving second place in the Best Writer category.
Awards include:
- Collegiate writers earned the top two places in the Column – Review or Blog – News category, with Angelina Jahn earning first place and Sam Tucker earning second place.
- Anthony Clark Jr. earned first place and Matthew Denhartigh earned second place in the Sports News/Features category.
- Breegan Petruska earned first place and Chase earned third place in the Editorial category.
- Abby Haywood earned first place in the Front Page Design category, and first place in the Open Class Original Cartoon – Editorial or Entertainment category.
- Editor-in-Chief Kaia Zimmerman earned second place and an honorable mention in the Column – Review or Blog – Sports category.
- Chase earned second place in the News Story category.
- Aspen Strauss earned third place in the Open Class Multimedia Reporting category.
Entries were reviewed by the Arkansas Press Association.
"It is more important than ever to recognize and encourage good, impactful journalism. That is what our college newspapers are doing, and with support and recognition from contests and professionals in the field, that will continue. Our experienced faculty and advisors will see to it as well," Joanne Williams, associate professor of journalism and mass communication at Olivet College and MCPA president, said in a release.
The Collegiate's winning entries are available here.