The Press Club of Southeast Texas hosted its annual Excellence in the Media/Newsmaker of the Year Awards ceremony June 8. Faculty, staff and students from Lamar University took home a total of 43 awards for their hard work this past year. Through corporate underwriting and donations from this event, the club raises funds for the Press Club Memorial Scholarship, which is awarded to a Lamar University communications student every spring.

LUTV won six awards on Friday, with two first place wins, two third place wins, and two honorable mentions. Gordon Williams, Jonathan Tippett, Tyler Hargraves, Edward Long and Cedric Lyons II won first place in the corporate/institutional video category. Williams, Tippett, Hargraves, Long and Johnny Lively also won first in the broadcast internet video category; both of these first place awards were in association with Lamar University’s Department of Theatre and Dance.

In the best station promotion category, Williams, Tippett, Hargraves, and Lanee Tesch won third for their commercial, “Thank You Southeast Texas.” Jennifer Yacuta, Emily Sterling, Tierra Billiot, Brooke Kirchhofer and Shaylynne Doucette placed third in the sports show category for their “NFL Pros or Cons?” sports break. Yacuta, Sterling, Billiot, Kirchhofer and Doucette also received an honorable mention in the sports show category. Kirchhofer received a second honorable mention in the sports story category for her piece, “Kelly Strikes Back.

The LU Marketing Communications team won three first-place awards, five second-place awards, three third-place awards and one honorable mention.

In the special events materials category, Cynthia Hicks, Amanda Toups, and Kevin McGee took first for Cardinal View. Toups, Madison Laurence, McGee, Daniel McLemore and Bri Gore won second in the public relations category for Homecoming 2017. In the documentary category, McGee, Morgan Collier, Mandy Arceneaux, McLemore, and Nathan Paine placed second.

In the brochure category Laurence took second for her Recruitment Counselor’s Guide, Toups got an honorable mention for her Acceptance brochure and Hicks and Toups received an honorable for their College of Engineering Overview brochure.

McGee took first in both the news organization internet video and video editing categories. McGee placed second in the breaking news category for, “Snow Day,” and took second in the faith-based/inspirational category for his piece with Nathan Paine, “Harvey Heroes.”

In the environmental category, McGee, Paine, Mandy Arceneaux and Aron Arceneaux took home third. Toups, McGee and Laurence placed third for their internal public relations campaign. And in the light feature category, McGee, McLemore, John Ellis and Karli Noonkester took third.

For their documentary, “Wild Weather,” O’Brien Stanley, Mahmoud Salimi, Jim Westgate, Cedric Lyons II and Tyler Hargraves took home first place.

In the personal profile/interview category Caitlin Duerler received an honorable mention for her piece in the Cardinal Cadence, “In Guatemala, an independent spirit heals.

Winning 23 awards was the Lamar University Press. Karen Chapman, Andy Coughlan, Judy Linsley and Arlene Christiansen took home first and third place for the McFaddin-Ward House “Viewpoints” newsletter for the months of December and March respectively; as well as receiving an honorable mention for June.

University Press Staff won second in overall excellence for their Sept.14, Nov. 2, and Jan. 26 issues. They also took second in the overall excellence - special supplements/promotional publications/tabloids category for Vol 94, No. 8, and received third in overall excellence for the Spring and Fall of 2017. For the photo essay or picture page category, UP Staff took second with “Hurricane Harvey.

Shelby Strickland took home five awards total, she received two first place awards in the general column and feature page design/layout categories. She also took third with her headline, “A mighty ‘rice’ time.” In the graphic/cartoon/illustration category she received an honorable mention.

Olivia Mack and Strickland placed first for the overall excellence page design/layout category for the Nov. 9, Feb. 22, and March 1st issues in the University Press. Malick also took home second with her Harvey opinion story, “Getting used to it,” and her sports column, “Standing room only?” Placing third in the sports column category was Cassandra Jenkins.

Jenkins took home two first-place awards, one for “Leading the way,” in the sports feature category, and another for, “Swinging for First,” in the non-daily sports page design/layout.

Shane Proctor was awarded first place for his feature photo, “State Fair.” In the sports news category Karisa Norfleet also took home first.

Placing in second was Elisabeth Tatum for her Harvey feature story, and Konnor Segura with his guest column, “Less binging, more socializing.” Hannah LeTulle took home third in the news photo category for, “Nursing home evacuation.” And with an honorable mention was Matt Beadle with his sports photo, “Cards demolish Falcons.