CWU student publications earn regional, national awards

Participating in student media is an opportunity for self-expression, community engagement, and professional development.

At Central Washington University, students working with PULSE magazine and The Observer newspaper have taken their work to the next level and been rewarded with both regional Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Mark Of Excellence awards and national Associated College Press (ACP) awards this spring.

At the ACP Spring National College Media Conference in La Jolla, held March 7-9, The Observer placed third in the overall Best in Show category for schools with fewer than 15,000 students, a placement that Editor-in-Chief Isaac Hinson sees as a huge victory.

Photo courtesy of Yohanes Goodell

“It was an incredibly validating moment for all of us to see our work recognized on that scale, but it also served as motivation,” he said. “The two schools that finished ahead of us do not print weekly like we do, have much larger staff than us, and, assumingly, have bigger budgets as well. To see that we could compete with the best of the best only added fuel to our fire, and we're coming for the crown next year.”

The Observer also took ninth place in the website category, and ninth in the design category for Brandon Davis’ work on a February story covering the fervor of CWU sports fans. PULSE took first place in design for a piece about Ellensburg’s native birds designed by Ileana Rea Martinez, and eighth place in feature writing for a story highlighting the pros and cons of student employment, written by Morgana Carroll and Gunner Stuns.

The regional SPJ Mark of Excellence awards, announced April 19, encompass student media outlets in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Alaska. This year, PULSE magazine took home first place in the website category, a testament to the magazine’s dedication to its online presence, and to the hard work of former web manager Sydney Ziegler, who designed the page. PULSE’s current web manager, Gracen Bayer, said the magazine’s online success comes in part from the guidance she receives from PULSE Faculty Advisor and Senior Lecturer Jennifer Green, which allows her to carry this award-winning work forward.

“She treats me with the grace of being a student who is still finding my way in the world, while also taking me seriously as a creative professional, guiding me along my journey with encouraging feedback every step of the way,” Bayer said. “I'm not even in the communications department—I'm a film major with a minor in art and design—but I can't stop taking communication courses with her because I sincerely love the environment she creates in her classrooms and the lifelong connections she creates with her students.”

PULSE also received first-place honors in arts/entertainment/fashion journalism for “Blurring the lines between blue and punk” by Noah Wright, Dylan Hanson, Jakob Burnham, and Makayla Zayic, as well as in retail/small business journalism for “The faces behind the farms” by Lilly Montgomery, Burnham, Zayic, and Wright. Winning these categories makes PULSE eligible to compete for the same prizes at the national level, with winners announced in late spring.

In addition to the winning stories, The Observer took a finalist position at SPJ for In-Depth Reporting, for the story “Remembering Shady Acres” by Katharine Camarata. PULSE was named a finalist for Best Ongoing Student Magazine, and for Campus Reporting for the story “1 in 4 Women” by Elliot Watkins.

Montgomery, the co-Editor-in-Chief of PULSE, believes the secret to the success of CWU’s student media is the people involved.

“We are an incredibly diverse group of students who have such a deep, genuine care for the content that we create and the stories that we tell, and that passion comes through clearly in the work that we put out and the accolades that we have received,” she said. “The professors and faculty members of the Communications department, especially our student media advisors, bring such a high level of respect and enthusiasm for their students and the discipline every single day. Without their support we could not possibly hope to publish the content that we are able to.”

Francesco Somaini, the CWU Media and Journalism program coordinator and faculty advisor to The Observer, explained that student media serves CWU by lending a voice to students through strong reporting and a keen interest in finding the truth.

“Student media perform the role of the press by giving voice to the student population and informing that population independently about what happens on campus,” he said. “They are an essential component of a healthy university environment. Robust student reporting contributes to that health. In regions where no other news outlets exist anymore, student media also often provide the only independent information available about events affecting local communities.”

Green agreed, adding that the skillset students take away from their involvement in student media serves to make them more informed citizens for the rest of their lives.

“They learn to pay constant attention to what’s happening on campus and in the world, and figure out what is timely and relevant to their readers,” she said. “They get to survey peers and interview the people making decisions that directly impact their communities. They can learn what’s important to them in the process, and they find a creative outlet to express this, visually as well as in writing.”