Students earn SPJ awards

The Society of Professional Journalists recognized the 2015 Mark of Excellence Awards winners from Region 5. The MOE Awards honor the best of collegiate journalism from a calendar year.

SPJ’s Region 5 comprises Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky. Honorees received award certificates the weekend of April 2 at the Region 4/5 Spring Conference in Cincinnati. First-place winners will move on to the national MOE competition among category winners from the 12 SPJ regions.

National winners will be notified in the late spring and will be recognized at Excellence in Journalism 2016 (EIJ16), Sept. 18-20 in New Orleans.

Entries are judged by professionals with at least three years of journalism experience. The awards honor the best in student journalism. As such, judges were directed to choose only those entries they felt were outstanding work worthy of such an honor. If the judges determined that none of the entries rose to the level of excellence, no award was given. 

School divisions are based on student enrollment, which includes both graduate and undergraduate enrollment: Large schools have at least 10,000 students and small schools have 9,999 or fewer students.

Sports Photography (Large) 10,000+ Students
Finalist: Illini football celebrates a different kind of win - by Tyler Courtney , University of Illinois

Newspapers
Best All-Around Daily Student Newspaper
Winner: Best All-Around Daily Newspaper - by The Daily Illini staff, University of Illinois

Sports Column Writing
Finalist: Peter Bailey-Wells columns - by Peter Bailey-Wells, University of Illinois

Radio Feature
Winner: Chicago street vendor - by Jessica Ramos, University of Illinois
Finalist: Graduation fears - by Riane Lenzner White, University of Illinois
Finalist: Performance anxiety - by Amelia Mugavero, University of Illinois

Radio News Reporting
Finalist: Red meat scare - by Jonathan Joffe, University of Illinois