Three Brevard College students are statewide contest award winners for their work as student journalists. The awards were announced by the North Carolina College Media Association at the annual conference on February 26, 2022, hosted by the Hussman School of Journalism and Media at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Caroline Hoy, Junior Environmental Studies Major with an emphasis in Sustainability and a Minor in Creative Writing and Anna Ervin, Sophomore Theatre Major jointly won a Page Design award for their layout last fall for “Mountain State Fair returns.” Brady Penn, a Sophomore Criminal Justice Major, won second place for Sports Writing for his article last spring about the end of the season for the BC Tornados headlined “By the flip of a coin.”
Caroline credits both Chiaroscuro, Brevard College’s literary and arts journal, and The Clarion student newspaper with allowing her the opportunity to learn about design for media. She said, “I never realized it was so hard. I had to read through everything and think about what went well together. I have been challenged and that is what I wanted.”
Anna has always enjoyed writing and just became more interested in design this year. She explained that the challenge for the award winning page design was how to fit everything on one page. She said, “I like that it’s like a puzzle. You have to question what is relevant, what people want to see, and what catches a reader’s eye.”
Brady is a sports enthusiast and Defensive Back for the BC Tornados Football team. He thinks of sports writing as a creative outlet for something he is passionate about. Brady acknowledges the opportunities Brevard College has supplied him to engage in student-based media efforts. He said, “As opposed to a bigger university, I was able to immediately get my foot in the door with sports media at BC, both writing about teams and announcing the sports teams games on the school broadcasts.”
Of how the awards have influenced their perspective on design and writing in the future, all three winners plan to continue to participate in media at Brevard College and potentially, in their future careers. Brady said, “It has definitely increased my hunger to continue sports writing and sports media as a whole. I’ve been told writing is a gift of mine, and this award confirmed that for me. I want to continue to use my ability to talk about sports, both on a wide scale, and for athletics at Brevard College.” Anna added, “I want to challenge myself and branch out into new areas of design. I want to test the boundaries and make something people are excited to see. Brevard College has let me explore those options.”