Contest winners all move on to the national round of judging against students from 11 other regions.
Elon News Network, nine School of Communications students and two alumni were named winners and finalists across several categories of the Society of Professional Journalists Region 2 Mark of Excellence Awards competition.
Below is the list of the winners:
- BEST AFFILIATED WEBSITE – Elon News Network
- BEST ALL-AROUND NON-DAILY NEWSPAPER – April 10, 2019, Oct. 9, 2019, and Nov. 20, 2019, editions
- BEST ALL-AROUND TELEVISION NEWSCAST – Nov. 11, 2019, broadcast
- GENERAL NEWS REPORTING – Abby Gibbs ’21 for “Elon is set to join the Common Application”
- BREAKING NEWS REPORTING – ENN Staff for “Car damaged by gunfire outside of Elon’s Chabad House”
- IN-DEPTH REPORTING – Cammie Behnke ’19 for “Redefining gender roles in Rwanda”
- SPORTS WRITING – Amanda Gibson ’21 for “Club hockey’s one female player is turning heads for all the right reasons”
- FEATURE PHOTOGRAPHY – Clare Grant ’23 for “L’Esprit”
- SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY – Thomas Denome ’23 for “Volleyball reaction”
- IMMERSION JOURNALISM – Anton Delgado ’20 for “Surviving a school shooting”
- ONLINE FEATURE REPORTING – Oliver Fischer ’19 for “Tail of the Dragon attracts thrill-seekers, motoring enthusiasts”
Below is the list of finalists:
- FEATURE PHOTOGRAPHY – Anton Delgado ’20 for “Fifth Alamance Pride Festival 2019”
- TELEVISION BREAKING NEWS REPORTING – Margaret Faust ’23 for “California wildfires”
- TELEVISION FEATURE REPORTING – Jack Norcross ’21 for “Renaissance Festival meet Bobo”
- TELEVISION IN-DEPTH REPORTING – Liam Collins ’20 for “Pinpointing the opioid epidemic”
Behnke’s story is the only one on the list that was not completed for Elon News Network. She conducted her reporting during Winter Term as a Pulitzer Center Student Fellow. Her 1,500-word feature, 5½-minute video and collection of photos centered on the economic gender reversal in a post-genocide Rwanda, where she spent 12 days working on her story.
SPJ Region 2 Mark of Excellence Awards are given in newspaper, TV, radio and online categories. Awards are presented only to those who place in the top three in the region. Regional winners move on to the national competition, at which time they will compete with 11 other first-place regional winners. Region 2 comprises North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Delaware.
Last year, four students won national SPJ Mark of Excellence Awards, including Emmanuel Morgan and Alex Hager ’19 (General News Reporting), Anton Delgado ’20 (Breaking News Photography) and Jessica Rapfogel ’19 (Sports Photography).
Elon University has had at least one national SPJ Mark of Excellence winner every year since 2012.