Lake Land College’s student-run newspaper, The Navigator News, took home twelve awards from the Illinois Community College Journalism Association (ICCJA), taking notable achievements in yet another successful year.
Nov. 13 saw the ICCJA conference held online this year as multiple community colleges logged on to take part in various informative workshops and seminars. The conference allowed students to learn from writers and professors about various topics in several “breakout sessions.”
These sessions included:
- “Five Secrets to Being A Good Editor” by Jim Fuller and Nick Obradovich
- “Make Your Arts Review Stand Out” by Dann Gire
- “How to Use AI Ethically in Creating Content” by Jim Fuller and Maham Kahn
- “Generating Local Campus Stories” by Michaela Gaffo, Tori Malek, Sarah Schudt, and Deana Elhit
- “Where Do I Begin With Writing a Profile Story?” by Maham Kahn
- “Storytelling with Multimedia Tools: What Elements Do I need?” by Jason Piscia.
- Notable investigator and reporter Sarah Conway held a keynote address on “Investigating Gender-based Violence in Policing.”
After the breakout sessions, everyone reconvened for the awards ceremony. This year, the Navigator won twelve awards, six more than the previous year.
The first award went to Darrius Frazier, receiving third place for the Sports Column category.
The second award went to Cecil Howell, receiving fourth place for Editorial Writer of the Year.
Mark Naroze took second place as Reporter of the Year.
Followed by a second-place award to Kim Hunter for Feature Photo.
Darrius Frazier was notably awarded first place for the News Column category,
followed by a first-place victory to Aisha Salami and Mark Naroze for the News Story category.
Aisha follows this with a fourth and third place victory in Page Design.
Noella Kasera also received two awards, getting fourth and second place in the Staff Editorial category
The Navigator Staff finished it off with a fourth-place victory in the Mike Foster General Excellence category.
Despite the unusual nature of an online conference this year rather than the typical in-person events, the Navigator staff were left satisfied and hopeful with this massive increase in awards, a trend they hope to see continue in the future.
