Baylor Student Publications Win National Titles, Emmy Award
Eight Baylor students from Waco joined two Baylor students studying in Washington for dinner at the National Press Club with Baylor alum Charles Poe (far right), senior producer for the Smithsonian Television Channel, and professor Gil Klein (back left), program director for the Semester in Washington Program at American University. Two students studying in Washington this semester include Jessica Babb, who is interning at the ABC affiliate WJLA, and Didi Martinez who is interning at the NBC Washington News Bureau.
Pictured are (front row L-R) Jessica Babb, Karyn Simpson, Didi Martinez, Molly Atchison, Kalyn Story, Liesje Powers, Jordan Smith and Charles Poe. (Back row) Gil Klein, Rachel Leland, Jessica Hubble, Marcus Maurer, and Baylor Student Publications Director Paul Carr.
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Media contact: Terry Goodrich, (254) 710-3321
WACO, Texas (Nov. 8, 2016) – Baylor University student publications have been ranked among the best in the nation by several organizations this year, and, for the first time in the Lariat’s 116-year history, the publication was awarded a television Emmy.
At the Associated Collegiate Press (ACP) National Conference in Washington, D.C., all four Baylor student publications placed in the top 10:
• The 2016 Baylor Roundup won first place in Best of Show. At the same conference, the 2015 Roundup received the ACP’s prestigious Pacemaker Award.
• The Lariat’s website was ranked as the second-best college news website in the nation.
• The Baylor Lariat took fourth place in Best of Show daily newspapers.
• Focus Magazine took eighth place nationally.
“Awards are an outside measure of the quality of work our students are producing,” said Paul Carr, director of student publications and lecturer in the department of journalism, public relations and new media in the College of Arts & Sciences. “To be part of a top-tier program like ours gives our students an edge over most other college students.”
At the ACP conference, four Baylor students won individual awards. Kate McGuire placed second for magazine design, Stephanie Miles third for yearbook design, Robby Hirst eighth for multimedia slideshow and Trey Honeycutt 10th for feature news photo. The Baylor staff also won a fourth-place award for a multimedia package.
The Lone Star Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences recently awarded the Lariat a television Emmy. Three video packages by the Lariat were named Emmy nominees. The winning video segment was a sports video produced by Lariat TV News broadcast reporter Thomas Mott in December 2015, wrapping up the Baylor-Texas football game.
“Winning the Emmy has totally changed the perception by professional broadcasters about what we are attempting to accomplish here,” Carr said. “They have been very helpful as our newspaper added television news, but we were still primarily a newspaper to them. Winning an Emmy has elevated our program in their minds to professional television status.”
This year, Lariat students also won three broadcast awards from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA), including a national first-place video news package, a national second-place video feature package and a national top-10 video feature package.
The CSPA also named the Lariat’s website and the Focus Magazine website the best university websites of their kind in the nation.
The College Media Association (CMA) ranked the Lariat’s smartphone app the App of the Year at the Pinnacle Awards program, part of its annual fall conference. At the Pinnacle Awards, the Lariat also won second place for editorial cartoons, second place for a Roundup feature spread, first place for a Roundup sports spread and first place for best audio slideshow.
“We have an engaged professional staff that sets high standards of excellence and then invests the time to coach our students to achieve that level of excellence,” Carr said. “We encourage our students to do their best work every day. We don’t settle for average or ‘good enough,’ but coach them on how to do a better job tomorrow.”
by Kalli Damschen, student newswriter, (254) 710-6805
ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY
Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked research institution. The University provides a vibrant campus community for more than 16,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 80 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 12 nationally recognized academic divisions.
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The College of Arts & Sciences is Baylor University’s oldest and largest academic division, consisting of 25 academic departments and 13 academic centers and institutes. The more than 5,000 courses taught in the College span topics from art and theatre to religion, philosophy, sociology and the natural sciences. Faculty conduct research around the world, and research on the undergraduate and graduate level is prevalent throughout all disciplines. Visit www.baylor.edu/artsandsciences.