Texas A&M Student Media received 36 awards from the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association for their work throughout 2018.
Representatives from Texas A&M Student Media — which includes The Battalion, the Aggieland yearbook and Maroon Life Magazine — went to Corpus Christi for the annual TIPA conference from March 13 to March 16. The conference encompassed competitions, workshops and discussions about student media with 30 schools from around Texas. Conference organizers also judge work from the previous calendar year that schools submit prior to the event.
A&M’s three dozen awards included an individual excellence award, 13 first place awards and four overall excellence awards. The Battalion took first place in overall excellence among newspapers. Battalion editor-in-chief Megan Rodriguez said it is exciting to see A&M’s student media staff recognized for their content.
“Everyone works tirelessly to serve the student body, and knowing that the stories we share are competitive among other universities is extremely rewarding,” Rodriguez said. “I’m proud of everyone’s commitment to student media and the results that we’ve seen from their hard work.”
In open division, The Aggieland received first place for inside news page design and overall design. Maroon Life magazine won best overall design for its New Students’ Guide to Aggieland and third place overall excellence for the Best of Aggieland.
In Division I, a few notable first place wins by The Battalion included general news story, cover and feature design, overall website design and general news photo. TheBatt.com also won second place for overall excellence. Honorable mention in Best of Show was given to The Battalion for its Turning the Page package.
Battalion photo chief Cassie Stricker was named designer of the year in the individual excellence category, after recently taking up designing in spring of 2018 when the design desk became short staffed.
“Filling the role of page designer was never something I anticipated, but when our spring page designers didn’t return in the fall, I knew I had to step up,” Stricker said. “Designer of the year was definitely not an award I thought I would be honored with — especially when I learned how to design for The Batt through a five-hour-long FaceTime call — but I couldn’t be more thankful for everything I’ve learned and experienced over the past few semesters.”
The 2017-2018 Aggieland editor-in-chief Anthony Pangonas said he is proud of the work that the Aggieland staff put in and he is happy to see it pay off.
“The awards are a great way to see the work and progression that the Aggieland staff has made on the yearbook,” Pangonas said. “We work hard to provide the best for the Texas A&M community, but it’s wonderful to see it honored at TIPA as well.”