Broadcast and journalism students earn state awards

GOSHEN, Ind. – Goshen College communication students were recently awarded top honors at state communication competitions.

GC Journal, the college's student-produced television news show, ranked second in the television-school-of-the-year category – just one point behind Ball State University – with the Indiana Association of School Broadcasters.

In the broadcast competition, Dusty Diller, a senior, from Colorado Springs, Colo., and Taylor Stansberry, a junior from Greentown, Ind., led the way, each winning awards in five separate categories. They tied for the honor of being the students with awards in the most categories statewide.

Diller and Stansberry took first place for "Sim Man," a video news package, and third place for corporate video, video in-depth and video spot production.

Diller and Kevin Kleptz, a sophomore from Goshen, took third for video newscast (the first time that Goshen had entered a full GC Journal newscast) for their Feb. 3, 2009 episode.

Mike Honderich, a 2008 graduate, received a first-place award for "Matchmakers," a video entertainment feature. Also in that category, Sara Jensen, a senior from Everest, Kan., and Tara Hershberger and Sam Yoder, both 2008 graduates, finished third.

Dustin Combs, a 2008 graduate, Doug Hallman, a junior from Lancaster, Pa., and Stansberry received second for video other live broadcasts. In video news package, Jesse Shaver, a senior from Seattle, finished third.

"While our competition could inform or persuade or entertain, we were the only college this year that earned awards in all three areas," said Ron Johnson, associate professor of communication and faculty adviser for GC Journal. "We demonstrated both breadth and depth."

Also in the broadcast competition, Trisha Handrich, a sophomore from Goshen, received a second-place award for radio air personality. The broadcast awards covered February 2008-2009.

And The Record, the college's student-produced weekly newspaper, received third place in the newspaper-of-the-year category with the Indiana Collegiate Press Association. The Goshen College Record also received 14 awards from the Indiana Collegiate Press Association, including first-place finishes for articles about trayless dining in the cafeteria and a champion snow skier who ended up on a very flat campus.

Paul Boers, a senior from Elkhart, received two first-place awards for best sports feature, with a profile about a student skier, and for best news feature about a soldier-turned-pacifist.

Sheldon Good, a senior from Telford, Pa., took first place in non-deadline news reporting for a piece on the effort to save waste and food by removing trays from the cafeteria.

The paper received second-place awards for best sports feature (Matt Harms, a senior from Ephrata, Pa.), best staff editorial (Emily Dougherty, a senior from Fishers, Ind.) and best informational graphic (Hilary Watson, a senior from Seattle).

Staff members took third-place awards for best editorial cartoon (Michael Neumann, a junior from Metamora, Ill.), best news or feature series (Julie Weirich, a sophomore from Goshen), best front page, best pullout section (Reporting for the Public Good class), best sports news story (Marlys Weaver, a junior from Goshen), best news feature (Weaver) and best staff editorial (Elizabeth Beachy, a senior from Wellman, Iowa).

The print awards cover the 2008 calendar year. Goshen College competes in Division III, which includes non-daily newspapers published at schools with enrollments of 2,000 or fewer full-time students.

Editors: For more information about this release, to arrange an interview or request a photo, contact Goshen College News Bureau Director Jodi H. Beyeler at (574) 535-7572 or jodihb@goshen.edu.

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Goshen College, established in 1894, is a residential Christian liberal arts college rooted in the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition. The college's Christ-centered core values – passionate learning, global citizenship, compassionate peacemaking and servant-leadership – prepare students as leaders for the church and world. Recognized for its unique Study-Service Term program, Goshen has earned citations of excellence in Barron's Best Buys in Education, "Colleges of Distinction," "Making a Difference College Guide" and U.S. News & World Report's "America's Best Colleges" edition, which named Goshen a "least debt college." Visit www.goshen.edu.