The Guilfordian’s staff went home smiling from the North Carolina College Media Association conference.
For the third year in a row, The Guilfordian was among a handful of college newspapers honored as “Best in Show” by the North Carolina College Media Association at their annual awards ceremony in Chapel Hill.
In addition, the paper’s writers, photographers and designers took home eight individual awards.
The competition is open to all college newspapers in North Carolina, and most choose to participate. Every year, the editors of each newspaper choose past issues that they consider exemplify the paper’s goals and style, along with a selection of strong individual pieces and submit them in a package to the NCCMA for judgment.
Entrants are divided into two groups. One is the “Large Schools” category, which contains newspapers from schools with over 6,500 students and includes well-known publications such the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Daily Tar Heel, which took “Best in Show” in its division this year.
Guilford competes in the “Small School” category for colleges with fewer than 6,500 student, along with both public and private universities such as UNC Asheville, UNC Pembroke, Campbell University and Elon University.
Senior Juliet Magoon received second place in Features Writing for her story on the Shakori Hills music and arts festival, and sophomore Quincy Malesovas received an honorable mention.
Guilford also did well in the photography, multimedia and design categories.
“Something that I have been pushing for is more art in the paper,” said Magoon in an email interview. “It would be great to feature student artists or a few pieces by Guilford students each issue … The big idea is to have as many students resonate with the paper as possible, not just writers and athletes.”
Senior Niki Gaines received second place in photography for her work on a story about President Jane Fernandes’ inauguration. Sophomore Veronica Zambrano-Coffie, sophomore Nicole Zelniker and sophomore Abe Kenmore took second in the Multimedia Package competition for their story on the climate change awareness march, and Karlen Lambert took third in Illustration and Graphics.
Senior Allison Stalberg also received an honorable mention for photography, and junior Michaela Beggins and senior Lily Hayward received honorable mentions for their design work.
According to Stalberg, The Guilfordian has been a positive force in her life.
“There’s something different about it than regular schoolwork,” Stalberg said. “Just to see it published and see people picking it up and reading it is awesome … (it also) really helped me with my social anxiety, so I’m really happy about that.”
Staff members says that change is always just around the corner.
“At The Guilfordian, we say that we reinvent ourselves every year,” said Dana Professor of English Jeff Jeske, who has served as the paper’s advisor for 28 years. “The new editorial board comes in, and they have an opportunity to remake the paper as they want.”
Editor-in-Chief and senior Justyn Melrose says that passing down knowledge and tradition is key to the paper’s success.
“I think a big part of it is our User’s Guide to The Guilfordian,” Melrose said. “Every year we add more to it, so we have this growing knowledge base over the years where we put in everything that we find that is important, useful or new.
“There’s also a part of it that’s kind of an oral tradition that the editors have been in the same position as the writers, so as they move up they’re able to teach the writers what they learned.”
Jeske said that, ultimately, the key ingredient is the students.
“Guilford students are different from the general, run-of-the-mill journalism students that you find at other colleges,” Jeske said.
“They’re really funky … In contests, it’s assumed that everything is going to be at least good. First place requires something that stands out. I think that Guilford students have, potentially, more ability to produce that kind of work than students elsewhere.”
