Ellen Kersey
J-Lab Staff Advisor

Traveling to Nashville for the Baptist Collegiate Journalism Conference proved rewarding for the four students and one adviser who made the “red eye” trip on Oct. 10. Corban’s journalism department collected eight awards, including a third place in the Overall Newspaper Division. 

Entries for the conference’s competition, from last year’s newspaper and yearbook, resulted in seven individual awards:

First places went to Josh Randolph (Photojournalism B & W Sports Action) for his yearbook photo of Scott Marshall and James Young, Julie Sena (Photojournalism B & W) for her photo of the “hippies,” to David Collett (Yearbook Sports Copy) for his story about Nate Morris, and to Sarah Doughty (Yearbook Club Copy) for her story on swing dancing.

The only second place award of the event (no third places were given) went to Blaine Bartlett for her softball yearbook story. The presenter noted that few yearbooks had entered worthy sports copy.

Charissa Bernard, 07 graduate and past Hilltop News editor, earned two third place awards for her newspaper column (“We’ve been saved to be different”) and her newspaper sports story on Becky Horn.

Attending the conference, along with adviser Ellen Kersey, were Joy Bennett, Caitlin O’Connor, Shawnee Randolph, and Dustin McNab.

Students Shawnee Randolph, Caitlin O'Connor, Joy Bennett and Dustin McNab attended the Baptist Collegiate Journalism Conference held in Nashville

“I appreciated the emphasis on the need for Christian journalists (and just Christians in general) to be conscious of world affairs,” O’Connor said about the conference. “The speakers and seminars challenged us to cover real, compelling, and relevant news that resounds with our audience.”

O’Connor noted that she was led to be aware of journalists’ needs to sometimes write the difficult news. “Are we as Christians afraid to write about news we don't necessarily endorse?” she asked. “Why are we shying away from issues that need attention? If Christians avoid today's prevalent topics in their media, they miss out on a chance to have an impact on the world.”

“Talking to working journalists” helped Dustin McNab get an idea of “what the job is like,” he said. “It was an opportunity place to get your name out there and set up some contacts you can use later to find a job.”  

He added that the face-to-face critique of the Hilltop News was “tough, but useful to determine what we need to do better.”

Shawnee Randloph came to realize what a ministry writing news actually is from the conference. “The speakers told us we are constantly on the front lines … fighting for the truth…,” she said. “As Christians, it is our job to shed a light on the world. As writers, we are called to do the same thing.”

Randolph said she now approaches journalism as “God-ordained.”

Journalists in the professional media who are Christians were keynote speakers. They included Manny Garcia, metro editor of the Miami Herald; Gary Fong, former director of editorial graphics technology at the San Francisco Chronicle; Don Boykin, recently retired from an editorship at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution; and Lauren Green, Fox News channel religion editor. 

Students and advisers attended a variety of sessions on topics such as “Ethical Dilemmas for Journalists,” “Succeeding at Freelancing,” and “Turn Your Team into a Savvy Journalistic Machine.”