By LCU News
PINEVILLE, La. (LCU News) – Louisiana Christian University convergence media and public relations students recently swept the Southeast Journalism Conference on-site awards, Feb. 25.
The students placed second in the overall number of awards given and brought home seven first place awards and a total of 14 top-three finishes.
“Ecstatic doesn’t even come close to how proud I am of our entire team,” said Elizabeth Clarke, chair of the Department of Media and Communication. “These students earned so much validation for their hard work. LCU is the smallest member school in SEJC, and this shows the quality of education and time our faculty have to invest in our students, and it pays off when they are committed to their craft like these students are.”
Nine students attended SEJC at Troy University in Troy, Alabama, Feb. 23-25, and participated in on-site competitions against students from other universities across the Southeast.
LCU placed second in the overall number of awards given at the 2024 SEJC on-site competition, taking 11 awards. These awards were presented Feb. 25 at Troy University in Alabama.
The following LCU students placed:
Victoria Watson – Arts and Entertainment Photography, third place;
Nathan Roper – Arts and Entertainment Radio Reporting, third place;
Cayden Walls – Arts and Entertainment TV Reporting, first place;
Cayden Walls – Feature TV Reporting, first place;
Carmen Taffi – TV News Reporting, third place;
Julia Keller – Sports Radio Reporting, first place;
Noel Schonhoff – TV Anchoring, third place;
Victoria Watson – TV New Producer, first place;
Nathan Roper, Carmen Taffi and Samuel Hair: Public Relations Campaign, second place;
Kaleigh Power and Cayden Walls – Artificial Intelligence Collaboration, first place; and
Samuel Hair – Media Law Quiz, first place.
In addition, Best of the South awards were given to the best student submissions representing published and broadcast works of journalism for 2023.
The following LCU students were recognized:
Lexi Rachal – Best Graphic Designer/Data Journalist, first place;
Brandon Brown – Best TV News Reporter, third place; and
Best Audio Program – “Whitewashed” by Phoebe Lim, third place;
SEJC includes 25 colleges and universities in the Southeast and is open to all schools in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Kentucky.
Clarke and Al Quartemont, assistant professor of journalism, will oversee the SEJC Best of the South Competition for 2025.
