Less than a year after publishing its first issue, the Rogers State Hillpost was recognized as one of Oklahoma’s best college newspapers by the Oklahoma Collegiate Press Association.
The Hillpost earned five awards at the annual Oklahoma Collegiate Press Association competition recently, including the overall top prize for newspapers published at public four year universities across the state.
Editor-in-Chief Zack Stoycoff won second place in the news and feature writing categories, Bekah Warren, feature editor, took third place in news writing and Josh Haley, sports editor, won second place in sports writing.
The Hillpost was one of two newspapers given the overall Award of Excellence at the competition, edging out newspapers that have existed for decades.
“It’s an incredible honor to be recognized like this in just our first year. I think it shows how dedicated we are to providing RSU and the community with high quality journalism. This is a legacy continue to forge in the coming years,” Stoycoff said.
Contest judges wrote that Hillpost’s breadth of coverage, originality, vision and quality writing were its strengths.
The newspaper received perfect scores in completeness, initiative, news stories and feature writing in the overall category.
The Hillpost also was given nearly perfect scores in sports writing, editorials, illustrations and photography.
Specific stories about RSU’s finances, basketball teams, clinical depression and rising textbook prices received positive feedback from contest judges and the paper won in all four categories it entered.
All awards for the Hillpost fall under the category of newspapers at four year public universities.
In addition, the student paper recently announced the selection of its second editor-in-chief Jeanice Davis. Davis, a junior liberal arts major, will replace Stoycoff in the fall when the paper resumes publication on August 22.
More information on the Hillpost can be found by visiting the paper’s website www.hillpost.com.