Miami Dade College’s The Reporter Named Top Student Newspaper in the State After Winning Ten First Place Awards from the Florida College System Activities Association
Miami, November 3, 2011 - One year after merging its three student newspapers to form one super paper, The Reporter of Miami Dade College has been named the top community college newspaper in the State.
The Reporter staff placed in 17 of 18 individual categories – including10 first-place awards – at the Florida College System Activities Association awards banquet in Orlando on Oct. 28.
The competition was based on newspapers printed during the 2010-11 school year. The Reporter accumulated 40 overall points.
“Getting to lead a staff that placed first in the State is a blessing – they work very hard day and night,” said Monique O. Madan, the editor-in-chief of The Reporter. “Seeing the look on everyone's face was a priceless experience. I have the utmost faith that The Reporter will only do better as we reach higher levels."
Three student reporters from Miami Dade College received inner circle awards for placing in the top three in at least three categories.
Photographer Gregory Castillo won four first-place awards: News Photo, Feature Photo, Sports Photo, and Picture Story; Castillo also won a second place award in the Sports Column category.
Madan won two first-place awards: News Story and the Editorial category, and a third-place award for In-Depth Reporting. Lazaro Gamio won a first-place award in Illustration; a second-place award for Design and a third-place award in the Editorial Cartoon.
The Reporter debuted on Oct. 4, 2010. It features 16 pages, prints on a biweekly schedule, has a circulation of 10,250 per print cycle, and is supplemented by a website with video and audio content. It is distributed at all eight MDC campuses and has newsrooms at the North, Wolfson and the Kendall campuses.
“Student journalism is alive and well at MDC,” said Manolo Barco, the media adviser to The Reporter. “Our students have a hunger and passion to be the best. We are proud of their accomplishments, and look forward to seeing them use this as a starting point to reach even higher platforms.”
FIRST PLACE:
Lazaro Gamio, Illustration
Monique O. Madan, News Story
Monique O. Madan, Editorial
Gregory Castillo, News Photo
Gregory Castillo, Feature Photo
Gregory Castillo, Sports Photo
Gregory Castillo, Picture Story
Mark Pulaski, Arts Review
Hector Gonzalez, Sports Writing
Manuel Palou, Ad Design
SECOND PLACE:
Lazaro Gamio, Design
Gregory Castillo, Sports Column
Akeem Mayers, Comic Strip
THIRD PLACE:
Monique O. Madan, In-Depth Reporting
Lazaro Gamio, Editorial Cartoon
Mark Pulaski, Feature Story
Andrea Orellana, General Column
Media-only contacts:
Juan Mendieta, 305-237-7611, jmendiet@mdc.edu, MDC communications director
Tere Estorino, 305-237-3949, testorin@mdc.edu, MDC media relations director
Sue Arrowsmith, 305-237-3710, sue.arrowsmith@mdc.edu, media specialist
Alejandro Rios, 305-237-7482, arios1@mdc.edu
Tarnell Carroll, 305-237-3359, tcarroll@mdc.edu, media specialist