BUIES CREEK — Campbell University’s three student publications have received a total of eight Statewide College Media awards from the North Carolina College Media Association for work produced in 2013, including “Best of Show” top honors for both The Campbell Times student newspaper and the Pine Burr student yearbook.
“Student media is an outstanding opportunity for our students to learn and refine journalistic and communication skills,” said Haven Hottel, director of communications and publications at Campbell and adviser of the Pine Burr yearbook. “It is wonderful for the students to be recognized for their efforts along with other peer institutions.”
The Campbell Times received the “Best of Show” award for schools with fewer than 6,500 students. Three students on The Campbell Times staff also received individual awards: junior Sierra Fox (“Trading Guns for Pencils,” Feature Writing, Honorable Mention); and seniors Kelli Hartill and Courtney Schultz (“Front Page, Oct. 21,” Single- or Two-Page Design, Third place).
“I’m incredibly thankful for the recognition we received this year from the N.C. College Media Association,” said Schultz, The Campbell Times editor. “I know designer Kelli Hartill and I have worked really hard to deliver the best newspaper we can and are very proud of what we accomplished.”
Schultz added that the competition included some well-known journalism schools. “It’s shocking The Campbell Times won Best of Show because I know other universities in the category are just as talented and probably have bigger staff than we do. It’s amazing The Campbell Times won awards, but also how we had individual winners such as Sierra Fox.”
Pine Burr was one of only two universities to be named “Best of Show” in the yearbook category, which included schools of all sizes. Three students who worked on the 2013 annual were also recognized with individual awards: junior Hunter Tadlock (“Seussical,” Photography, Honorable Mention); junior Kendall Tart (“Colors of Campbell,” Inside spread design, third place); and 2013 Campbell graduate Nolan Perry (“Spring Formal,” Inside spread design, honorable mention).
“I’m extremely proud of the team of students who worked hard to create the 2012-13 Pine Burr yearbook,” said Perry, the 2012-13 Pine Burr editor who is now a student at the Campbell Law School. “The recognition, combined with all of the support from the student body, more than justifies the long hours and late nights working in the yearbook office.”
Topping off the eight awards was senior Christopher Weston, an English major who received an honorable mention for his fiction story “Back in the Saddle,” which was published in The Lyricist, the student’s literary magazine that is advised by English instructor Nate Salsbury.
“Campbell University’s student publications do well because we have jolly colleagues such as Communication Studies Chair J. Dean Farmer, filmmaker Peter K. Kenny and interpersonal expert Rebecca Soper,” said Michael Ray Smith, communication studies professor and adviser of The Campbell Times. “We genuinely pull for each other’s success and it shows in the literary magazine, yearbook and so on.”