Student publication takes seven national and 10 state awards

March 27, 2019 | Jim Townsend

University of Houston-Clear Lake’s student-run digital publication The Signal won a total of 17 awards for work produced during the 2018 scholastic year, including seven national awards from Columbia Scholastic Press Association and 10 state awards from the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association.

In a March 8 New York awards ceremony, The Signal tied with University of Portland’s The Beacon for the CSPA’s prestigious silver Crown Award. As there was no gold Crown Award presented this year, The Signal and The Beacon tied as CSPA’s choice for the nation’s top two collegiate digital newspapers. Additionally, The Signal was awarded “Gold” status in critique from CSPA, earning a perfect score: 1,000 out of 1,000.

“I’ll be honest, I went to New York with high hopes of winning a gold Crown Award,” said Director of Student Publications and Senior Lecturer in Communication Taleen Washington. “Now I understand what an incredible feat it is for us to win a silver. We’re competing against student newspapers with a staff of up to 200 students, who are able to publish daily, cover breaking news and sports. The fact that The Signal has now won its second silver Crown Award in three years is a huge testimonial to the talent and dedication of our students here at UHCL.”

“Having been with The Signal’s editorial staff since spring 2016, I have been able to witness first-hand the growth of the paper,” said Brandon Peña, editor-in-chief. “Currently, our staff has around 40 members, which is significantly less than the universities we compete against. For me, these awards and recognitions are fantastic.

“But what matters most is ensuring our audience — the UHCL community —  is being informed, educated and engaged. Our tagline is ‘Your Voice, Your Community, Your Signal,’ because it embodies what our paper’s vision should be.”

Peña earned his Bachelor of Arts in Communication from UHCL in 2017. He is currently pursuing his Master of Arts in Digital Media Studies. Peña and Washington attended the New York ceremony, along with Lindsay Humphrey, manager of student publications.

In February, UHCL students won awards from the Columbia University-based association in several categories:

• Emily Wolfe won first place in editorial writing for “The Discreditingof the Press Places Democracy at Risk.”
• Three share the first place award for headline writing: Eric Bickerdyke’s “Hashtag to Bodybag: Reckless Injury And Death by Social Media”; Courtney Cryer’s “Adam vs. Eve-aluations: Gender Bias in Student Assessments,” and Alyssa Shotwell’s “Get With the Flow and Dispose of the Tampon Tax.”
• Codie McCauley and Becky Shafter shared the first place award in video public service announcements for “Students Read #MeToo Survivor Stories and Support.”
• Denise Belza took second place in the first-person experience category for “#MeToo: We Are No Longer Silent.”

Crown Award certificates of merit went to the following students:

• Hope Janise in the general features category for “Studies Suggest Shortage of Men in Education.”
• Micaela Kinsey in informational graphics for “Learn the Difference Between Service Dogs, Support Animals and Therapy Dogs.” 

At TIPA’s conference in Corpus Christi March 13-16, The Signal accepted a first place award, five second-place awards and four honorable mentions. First place went to Yesenia Diaz for “Voter registration grows between 2014-2018” in the use of data category.

Second place awards went to the following students:

• Julie Juarez, Tara Webster, Evelyn Alejandro and Jonathan Taylor in the multimedia sports story category for “The Sprint from UHCL Student to Olympic Pioneer.”
• Justin Murphy and Joseph Riley in the blog category for “Sports Talk.”
• Nhu Tran’s interactive graphic “Fantastic Beasts and Magical Creatures in the Wizarding World.”
• Angela Zwolinksi’s static informational graphic “Statistics Track the Latest Teacher Trends Both in Texas and Nationally.”
• The Signal staff for overall website design.

Honorable mentions went to the following students:

• Madi Coates in the special design print category for “New Student Orientation Issue.”
• Murphy in editorial writing for “Delayed hiring VSO Leadership Hinders Veteran Students’ Educational Journey.”
• Blake Garza in editorial writing for “Course Evaluation Results Should Be Available to Students.”
• Wolfe in the general column category for “Why Hate Speech Must Be Defended for the Sake of America.”

The first issues of UHCL’s student newspaper debuted in May 1975, then called the UHCLidian. It didn’t become consecutively published until 1978. In 2007, it was renamed The Signal. In 2014, it became digital-only.