Student Journalists Win Big at Milner, TIPA, TAME, Hearst awards

May 16, 2023

Two people speak in front of a small audience in a newsroom.

Jean Marie Brown, director of student media, introduces journalism alumna Elizabeth Campbell ’18 as the featured speaker at the annual Student Media Awards presentation on Friday, April 28, 2023, in the student newsroom.

Student Media staff and contributors were honored at the Jay & Gail Milner Distinguished Student Journalism Awards.

Director of Student Media Jean Marie Brown presented, with help from alumni Elizabeth Campbell ‘18, a field producer for CBS News; Cristian AruetaSoto ‘21, a reporter at Fort Worth Report; and Shane Battis ‘18, a communications representative for Lockheed Martin.

The Milner awards are an internal contest, with one requirement: the work must have been published on a Student Media platform.

“The Milners is a celebration of Student Media,” Brown said.

The Jay and Gail Milner awards are judged by alumni along with industry professionals. This year’s judges were Jeanette Quezada, a bilingual reporter with San Diego’s NBC7; Evan Watson, an investigative reporter with KGW 8 in Oregon; Susan Leath, board chair of the Ida B. Wells Society; and Norma Martin, a former editor of TCU Magazine, who is now a managing editor with Industry Dive.

At the spring award ceremony, seven students were inducted into Kappa Tau Alpha, a journalism and mass communication honor society. Students were also presented with awards from Hearst Journalism Awards Program, Texas Association of Managing Editors, Texas Intercollegiate Press Association annual competitions.

Two people pose for a photo while holding an award.

Jean Marie Brown poses with Micah Pearce, who won the Celeste Williams Star Sportswriter of the Year award for 2022.

In the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association awards, students’ work is judged against other student journalists across Texas. While the Texas Managing Editors contest allows students to compete against full-time professionals at small publications.

“In many ways the awards are an affirmation of the quality of the student’s work,” Brown said. “Many of the entries were class assignments.”

Micah Pearce is the first TCU student to be awarded the Celeste Williams Sportswriter of the Year award, which recognizes the best professional sportswriters in Texas. The judge noted the depth of Pearce’s coverage which ranged from track to football. Pearce, who is interning at the Star-Telegram this summer, will be executive editor of TCU 360 in fall 2023. Williams, was the managing editor for sports and features at the Star-Telegram before her death in 2017.

The team award from TAME recognizes the group work done by reporting students, who examined various aspects of policing and its place in the city’s budget.

Horned Frogs from any major are invited to work on TCU 360, a student-produced news website and home to The Skiff newspaper’s digital archives, Image magazine, TCU News Now, The Leap, Unscripted and numerous podcasts. This year’s staff included students from nearly every college or school at TCU.

A group of students and faculty pose for a photo in a newsroom.

New Kappa Tau Alpha inductees pose with faculty and alumni members at the Student Media awards presentation on April 28, 2023, in the student newsroom. From left: Dean Kristi Bunton, Micah Pearce, Sally Verrando, Professor Chip Stewart, alumna Elizabeth Campbell ’18, alumnus Shane Bettis ’18, Sasha Chapman and Emma Watson.