Illini Ag Communicators of Tomorrow sweep Ag Media Summit awards

Members of the Illini Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow (ACT), the flagship student organization of the Agricultural Communications Program, were named National ACT Chapter of the Year during the 17th Ag Media Summit held in Scottsdale, Arizona on July 25-29, 2015. The annual Summit is the largest meeting of the agriculture industry’s top writers, editors, photographers, publishers and ag communication specialists in the United States.

Kelsey Litchfield, a junior, was elected national ACT officer, won the American Agricultural Editors Association’s (AAEA) Dr. James F. Evans Scholarship, and was named National ACT Distinguished Member Award.

Kendall Herren, a senior, bagged one of four Forrest Bassford Scholarship winners by the Livestock Publications Council (LPC).

Jennifer Shike, ACES Director for Communications and Marketing, won first place in feature writing (for the article In the Blink of an Eye) and second place in the outstanding magazine category (for ACES@Illinois) in the Critique Contest. She also won second place for her photograph of livestock industry people in the LPC’s Best of the Bunch Photo Contest. She sits in the Council’s Board of Directors.

For more information, please see Jessica Telgmann, Communications & Marketing summer intern’s post to the Voices of ACES blog at http://aces.illinois.edu/about/voices-of-aces.

The Illini ACT crew of (l to r) Leia Kedem, Caitlin McClure, Kendall Herren, Taylor Hardy, Kelsey Litchfield, Jessica Telgmann, and Jennifer Shike attended this year’s Ag Media Summit in Arizona.