April 6, 2011

Bison staff honored at regional awards ceremony

Staff members from The Bison, Harding University’s student-led
newspaper publication, were recently honored with several
awards at the Society of Professional Journalists' Mark of Excellence
competition in Nashville, Tenn.

The Bison staff won first place in both the general news reporting
category and the editorial writing category. Overall, The Bison won
second place for best all-around non-daily newspaper. Junior graphic
design major Henrique Ruiz won first place in the photo illustration
category.

The competition included submitting newspaper samples from the past
year, and it was judged against other colleges in the region,
including those from Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee and Mississippi.

“Our journalism students have once again shown that they can compete
with some of the strongest newspaper and journalism programs in the
country. Our students are bright, creative storytellers who serve the
Harding family very well,” said Dr. Jim Miller, journalism adviser and
SPJ campus chapter sponsor.

The conference was held at Lipscomb University in Nashville on March
25-26. The event included national president of the Society of
Professional Journalists, Hagit Limor, who shared her experiences
about reporting on location from Japan when the earthquake and tsunami
hit last month, as well as other speakers.

“I am extremely proud of my staff for their accomplishments. We work
hard every week to put out what we hope to be a stellar publication,
and these awards are just the evidence of that effort. It's very
humbling to see how far we have come, even from just last year,” said
editor-in-chief, Sarah Kyle, a senior print journalism major.