Thirty-two was the magic number for students from the University of La Verne Communications Department at the 50th Annual California Intercollegiate Press Association (CIPA) convention hosted by Cal Poly San Luis Obispo last weekend.
ULV students took home a total of 32 awards, the school’s best performance ever.
ULV’s strongest showing was in the new Best Web Site categories, in which La Verne Magazine won first place among the magazines, LVTV finished first among the television stations and KULV earned second place in the radio station competition.
The CIPA competitions recognize the best of college journalism from throughout the state of California.
The Campus Times staff won 12 citations in the weekly newspaper division, including a third place award for Overall Design, Tabloid. Junior Johnny Hagerman won first place in Opinion Column for “Murder provides harsh awakening” (Oct. 30), a column about the pressures of being openly gay. Simon W. Bouie, a senior, won second place in the News Article category for “Housing deals with crowded halls” (Sept. 18). Senior Laura Ambriz won second place Feature Photograph for her image of a fire-eater at the Universal Studios Halloween Haunt (Oct. 9).
Junior Araceli Esparza won two awards — second place and honorable mention — in the Opinion Section category. Also winning two newspaper awards was senior Danny Eckardt, who earned honorable mentions in Sports Game Article for “Water polo sets tradition, winning ways” (Dec. 4) and in Sports Feature Article for “Henry bumps CPP for return to ULV” (Nov. 6). A third place award went to senior Ryan Sones for Sports Photograph for his coverage of the men’s volleyball championships (May 1). Alumna Stephanie Lesniak’s cartoon on overcrowding in the residence halls (Oct. 2) earned an honorable mention for Editorial Cartoon. Another honorable mention went to senior Michael P. Bailey for his coverage of the fire in Davenport Dining Hall (Oct. 9).
Among the magazine competitors, La Verne Magazine finished with five awards, including a tie for honorable mention in the Sweepstakes category. Sones picked up two of the awards — a first place for Color Photograph and an honorable mention for Magazine Cover — for his cover of the Spring 1998 issue. This is the fourth consecutive year that La Verne Magazine has been recognized as having the best color photography in the state. The other two awards were won by Lesniak, whose two illustrations for the Spring 1998 issue tied for honorable mention in the Magazine Art/Graphics category.
Besides its Sweepstakes honorable mention, KULV also won another award for Sports Play-By-Play, earned by juniors Landus Rigsby and Sergio Paredes.
LVTV earned a second place Sweepstakes plaque among its five awards. These also included a second place for alumna Andrea Gardner in the News Story category for her piece on an armed robbery at Vons. LVTV also earned a second place in the News/Entertainment Magazine Story category for an episode of “La Verne Spotlight” produced by junior Gina Cerullo, senior LaShanda Maze, alumnus Scott Fitzgerald, Bouie and Eckardt. There were two La Verne winners in the Feature Story category — third place for alumna Julieta Ramirez for “The Zone” and an honorable mention for senior Tamar Garabedian for “Glendora’s Nature Boy.”
ULV also won five awards in the CIPA on-site competitions. In Sports Photography, senior Summer Herndon finished second and sophomore Isela Peña finished third for their coverage of a lacrosse match. Bouie won second place for Radio Feature Story, junior Kelly Young earned third place for Television Entertainment Story and junior Michelle Thornton won honorable mention for Editorial Writing.
Journalism operations manager at the University of La Verne. Production manager and business manager of the Campus Times.