Students in the Hall School of Journalism and Communication earned over a dozen awards at the 2023 Southeast Journalism Conference (SEJC), including four first-place honors.
The SEJC was held from Feb. 9-11 at Nicholls State in Thibodaux, Louisiana. TROY students participated in two competitions, the “Best of the South” featuring submissions from work done for the Tropolitan, TrojanVision and Troy Public Radio, and an on-site competition where students compete live on deadline.
More than 20 schools were represented at this year’s event, and TROY took home 13 awards with Talk of Troy winning second place for Best Audio News Program and TROY TrojanVision winning second place for Best Television Station and third place for Best Video Newscast.
The winners are as follows:
“Best of the South”
- Kris Harrell—1st Place, Best Arts & Entertainment Writer
- Caleb Thomas—3rd Place, Best Sports Writer
- Georgia Clark—1st Place, Best Television Journalist
- Cailey Wright—2nd Place, Best Feature Television Reporter
- Claudia Peppenhorst—3rd Place, Best News Reporter
- TROY TrojanVision—3rd Place, Best Video Newscast
- TROY TrojanVision—2nd Place, Best Television Station
- Kameron Banks—2nd Place, Best Radio News Reporter
- Jaelanne Thomas—2nd Place, Best Radio Feature Reporter
- Marissa Lacey—1st Place, Best Radio Journalist
- Talk of Troy—2nd Place, Best Audio News Program
On-site competition
- Emma Ellis—1st Place, TV Anchoring
- Cailey Wright—2nd Place, TV Reporting
“Our J-School students continue to perform well year after year, and this validation through these awards shows that our students are part of one of the best journalism programs in the country,” said Dr. Robbyn Taylor, Director of the Hall School. “These students are preparing for a lifetime of public service and ethical journalism and we could not be prouder to celebrate this achievement.”
Taylor was also elected to serve as the 2023-2024 SEJC President, meaning TROY will host the 2024 conference event. The conference will bring around 500 students, professors and journalists to the campus to see how TROY’s nationally-ranked program operates.
“I’m very excited to serve as the new SEJC president,” she said. “It has been more than a decade since the event was held here. We are proud of our program and take seriously our mission to train ethical journalists. It will be a wonderful opportunity for young journalists from more than 20 schools to come together to share ideas, compete and learn from our industry-experienced faculty and alumni here on our beautiful campus.”
SEJC is a primarily academic organization composed of more than 35 member colleges and universities in all states across the Southeast, including Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee.
SEJC was created to encourage greater interest in student journalism and to form closer ties among journalism schools in the Southeast United States.
