By Ashley Wood/south news editor
The Collegian staff received 20 awards at a Texas journalism competition where a former adviser was honored in its inaugural hall of fame.
The Texas Community College Journalism Association held its conference Oct. 10 at the University of Texas at Tyler with awards handed out at a dinner reception.
At the reception, former Collegian adviser Diane Turner, who died in 2009, was honored with the first induction into TCCJA’s Distinguished Hall of Honor.
Student publications director Eddye Gallagher accepted the award along with the Turner family and spoke about Turner’s place among Texas college advisers.
“Diane Turner was a legend among the Texas Community College Journalism Association,” she said. “She was one of the founding members and quickly became a leader, both here and at TCC.”
Turner was an adviser at TCC for 40 years starting on South Campus’ newspaper. When TCC’s campus newspapers combined to form The Collegian in 1988, she became a leader there as well, Gallagher said.
“Students said she was very demanding. She wanted excellence, but she worked with them to get that excellence,” she said. “She helped them achieve their goals.”
Turner’s main effort was to help and support her students, and her spirit and love for journalism will always live on with those she taught and guided, Gallagher said.
Editor-in-chief Dylan Bradley said the speech Gallagher gave was one of the most touching she had ever heard.
“I never got to met Diane Turner, but her family was a real pleasure,” she said.
Turner was a friend to everyone, Gallagher said.
“She was a wonderful person, she was a wonderful teacher and she lives on forever in their minds and in what they do now,” she said.
During live competitions that day, Bradley won third place in print news writing and honorable mention for copy editing. Photo editor Eric Rebosio won first place in layout/design.
Rebosio said he kind of knew what to expect for the live competition but liked the school tour he took afterward.
Bradley said although the live competition was good, she felt the tour afterward was more beneficial for her.
“I thought the tour was really helpful because I got to talk to the editor-in-chief of their paper, and they let us visit their newsroom and they really broke down how their newspaper works,” she said. “It gave a good indication of what it would be like to be there.”
In the TCCJA awards, The Collegian received honorable mentions for general excellence and for its website.
First-place winners for The Collegian included Haylie Jones and Kirsten Mahon for picture page/panel feature, Kenney Kost for feature writing and Rhiannon Saegert for news writing.
Second-place winners included Kost and Saegert for audio news and Mathew Shaw for column writing.
Third-place winners were Kost for editorial, Jones for feature photo, Erin Ratigan for feature writing and Daphne Reese for advertising.
The honorable mentions included Matt Fulkerson for video sports, Ratigan for video news, Eric Hadley for cartoon, Hal Duncan for advertising, Zach Estrada for sports action photo and Kost for news writing.
