So the entire Chronicle staff was invited the 29th Annual Convention of the Illinois College Press Association during the weekend, and I have to say it was quite a wonderful experience. For those who might not know what ICPA is, it’s basically an awards ceremony showcasing and acknowledging all the hard work and excellence college newspapers (daily and nondaily) have done throughout the entire year. This year’s award celebrations were for 2010, and Shardae, myself and the rest of The Columbia Chronicle staff were honored and grateful to be part of it.
On Friday, we went around to various workshops at the DoubleTree Hotel, which comprised speakers and people working in the journalism industry, including photography critiques, how to find a job in a tight market, covering meetings, sports beat reporting, covering the toughest stories, investigative reporting, social media, writing movie reviews and interviewing like a champ, among many others.
The awards luncheon took place on Saturday, and it honored the best work of student journalists from a ton of different colleges—Columbia College Chicago being one of them. The Chronicle took home a lot of awards, including first place for the Excellence Award, first place for multimedia reporting, first place for feature design and second place for front page layout, to name a few. I even think people started to get upset that we were winning so many awards (haha)! It just feels great to be part of the best weekly college newspaper in Illinois, and it was a fantastic weekend at ICPA!