Southeast Arrow wins Best in State

Several members of the Arrow editorial staff, including myself, attended the Missouri College Media Association conference at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, Missouri, on Saturday.

While at the conference, we attended an awards banquet with staff members from other college and university newspapers across the state. It was a great experience to meet a variety of students from different schools in Missouri, and I appreciate that we are given chances like these throughout the year to network with our peers.

This year the Arrow brought home a number of awards. First and foremost, we were honored by being chosen as the Best Overall Newspaper in the top division in the state, Division 1. Next, we found out that we had won the 2015 Best in State Newspaper award for the state of Missouri. The moment the Arrow's name popped up on the award announcement slideshow made that day one of the best I've ever had, and I've had quite a few good days this year.

Along with the top two awards, the Arrow brought home several others, including a first place award for an information graphic by Caitlin Jasper; second place for an information graphic by Caitlin Jasper; second place for a sports page by Jen Gradl, Alyssa Brewer and Nick McNeal; third place for advertising by Arrow Creative Services; third place for a story illustration by Sean Burke, Caitlin Jasper and Marissa Fawcett; an honorable mention for news photography by Doc Fiandaca; an honorable mention for in-depth news reporting by Andrea Gils; an honorable mention for feature writing by me; and an honorable mention for a feature page by Caitlin Jasper and myself.

Jay Forness, the Arrow's managing editor, was nominated and voted the Missouri College Media Association president for the 2015-2016 school year. This means that Southeast Missouri State University will host next year's MCMA conference in Cape Girardeau. At this point, the entire Arrow staff and I have a lot to be proud of, and a lot to be thankful for, because we never could have gotten this far without the help of all those who have come before us.

This year has been challenging and stressful for all of us, and these awards make all of our hard work and late nights worth it. It is nice to be acknowledged, and we appreciate all of the feedback we received from the Missouri College Media Association judges.

This competition crosses two academic years, so I have to give credit to all of our writers, editors, advertising and marketing managers from this year and last spring, and especially Savanna Maue, last year's editor in chief. Thanks also go out to our advisers and publisher who work with us on a weekly basis. Without all of them none of this would have been possible, and I cannot thank them enough. We are extremely proud to have won this prestigious statewide award, and we intend to push our boundaries and keep improving as a student news source in the future.