The Pioneer recently won eight statewide journalism awards – earning recognition in categories ranging from news and feature stories to photo essays and layout/design – at the annual awards banquet hosted by the Oklahoma Press Association.
The Pioneer ranked third in total number of prizes won and tied for second in highest number of first-place awards secured, outperforming most of the four-year universities – including Oklahoma State University, Oklahoma City University and the University of Central Oklahoma – and all of the two-year colleges that participated in this year’s OPA Better Newspaper Contest.
“The Pioneer has come a long way in a relatively short period of time,” Pioneer Advisor-Editor Melissa Davis said. “I am so proud of the students who have made this impressive comeback possible. They have worked really hard to rebuild The Pioneer and return it to its glory days as an award-winning student newspaper.”
Pioneer staffers collected four first-place awards at the recent OPA banquet, with Managing Editor Jonas McGee earning top honors in the news story and feature story categories, STEM Editor Masooma Rizvi winning first place in the education story category and former Editor-in-Chief Khi Davis snagging highest honors in the photo essay/picture page competition.
The Pioneer secured one second-place award, granted to current Editor-in-Chief Trey Brite in the feature photograph competition. The newspaper also won three third-place prizes, awarded to McGee in the news story category, Davis in the feature photograph competition and the newspaper itself in the layout/design category, thanks to the contributions of former Layout/Design Editors Natalie Billheimer and Ariel Harry.
The judges offered high praise for all of The Pioneer’s winning submissions, repeatedly describing McGee’s work as “well-written,” for example, while applauding Brite’s “great capture of true innocence and happiness” in a photo of College for Kids attendees and complimenting Rizvi’s approach to storytelling by stating, “Like any good article, the first few sentences drew me in.”
The Pioneer’s advisor-editor saw plenty to celebrate in her students’ work as well.
“I could tell that those stories and photos were special when the students first submitted them for publication,” Davis said. “I was delighted to learn that the judges felt the same way. It’s so nice to see the students receive the outside validation that they deserve.”
All told, The Pioneer won a total of 15 statewide journalism awards during this year’s newspaper contest season. The paper previously won seven awards – including multiple honors in the personal column, review and feature/personality profile categories – at an awards luncheon hosted by the Oklahoma Collegiate Media Association earlier this year.
