UL Lafayette journalism students hauled home eight awards from this past weekend's Southeast Journalism Conference held on the campus of Troy University in Troy, Ala.
The students won three first-place awards in the on-site competition for stories written on deadline at the convention: Junior journalism major and former Independent intern Lanie Cook was awarded first place for arts/entertainment writing; senior journalism major Nick Fontenot won for sportswriting for the second consecutive year; and junior journalism major Tiffany Segura won for copyediting. The university placed second overall in the on-site competition for the second year in a row.
In the conference's Best of the South competition for work published or broadcast in 2010, UL took home four awards, which went to KRVS (third place, best college radio station), Hope Rurik, another former Ind intern (fourth place, feature writing), Elizabeth Brown (sixth, arts/entertainment) and Alison Moon, editor of UL's student newspaper, The Vermilion (seventh, press photography).
The SEJC comprises 33 schools from the southeastern United States. More than 300 entries from 29 schools in two dozen categories were judged in the 2010 Best of the South competition. Sixteen UL students attended the conference with Dr. Robert Buckman, faculty delegate and journalism professor.