by Erica Baumgardner '16

Members of Knox College's student-run newspaper, The Knox Student, recently attended the Illinois College Press Association annual convention in Chicago, where TKS added 12 awards to its growing list of accomplishments.

TKS competed against other nondaily student newspapers in Illinois from schools with 4,000 students or less, taking home four first place awards, including feature story, in-depth reporting, sports news story, and sports feature story. The paper also took home several other awards from various categories, including second place for front page layout, second place for an advertisement less than a full page, and third place for sports page design. 

TKS has consistently performed well at the ICPA convention over the past decade, receiving several awards for general excellence in the past five years. 

"Year in and year out, TKS is one of the top small collegiate newspapers in Illinois," said Tom Martin, who has been TKS adviser since 2009 and is a member of the Illinois Collegiate Press Association board. "The students are bright and diligent and the results are plain to see. The newspaper really has developed forward momentum."

Martin accompanied the students to the ICPA conference, where they attended a variety of workshops and the awards luncheon. Attending were TKS Editor in Chief Julian Boireau, Kate Mishkin, Rachel Landman, Callie Rouse, Payton Rose and Lucy Rae Dorn.  

The ICPA awards come just months after the paper was named a 2014 Pacemaker Finalist at the Associated College Press annual convention. The Pacemaker is a national award that recognizes overall excellence in collegiate journalism for college newspapers. Knox competed for this award against similar publications from other schools, including University of California Los Angeles, Syracuse University, and George Washington University.

Kate Mishkin '16, managing editor of The Knox Student, attributes its success partly to professional opportunities available to journalism students. "We're working with a legacy of incredibly successful journalists whom we've all learned from. It's this consistency that allows us to keep receiving awards, year after year," Mishkin said. 

Among these professionals, Mishkin notes James Dyer, assistant professor and chair of journalism, whose work has received several Pulitzer Prize nominations. "We've gotten a lot of help from professor Jim Dyer -- it's nice to have a professional in the department," Mishkin said. 

Professor Dyer himself recognizes the ongoing success of the publication. "From design and photojournalism to quality reporting and writing, the journalism produced at The Knox Student has been consistently outstanding during the last decade," Dyer said. "The fact that TKS won 12 ICPA awards and was also a finalist for a national Associated Collegiate Press Newspaper Pacemaker award shows it remains not only one of the best college newspapers in the state but in the country."