APW honors JBU students, faculty, alumna
Arkansas Press Women recognized eight John
Brown University students, a faculty member and an alumna among the win
ners of the organization’s
professional communications contest during an online presentation on April 25.
The awards were presented in a virtual ceremony in light of social distancing requirements to help stem the spread of covid-19.
Catherine Nolte, junior at John Brown University and managing editor of The Threefold Advocate, received three first-place awards in the collegiate education division of the contest. Her firsts were in design (print or electronic) for “The Life of Christ in
Words and Images,” writing — news for “Brexit
delayed for a third time,
pushed to January 2020,” and writing — opinion, editorial, reviews for “Mental
illness is not a sin.” Nolte
also placed second in the professional portion of the communications contest
for specialty articles — religion for “Upperclassmen confront faith crisis at
CCCU schools.”
A team of six students —
Rachel Ball, Claire Brownlee, Hannah Lawrence, Jessica Oldenettel, Natalie Rogers and Andrea Sosso
— received a first-place
award in the collegiate division for public relations campaign. The students prepared a social media/ communication plan for Saving Grace, a Rogers
based nonprofit organization. The campaign was their final project in a Pub
lic Relations Writing and
Technology class.
JBU’s Maria Aguilar, opinions editor for The Threefold Advocate, also was honored. Aguilar’s ar
ticle, “Bentonville citizens
protest to relocate Confed
erate statue” was entered
in the professional division of the contest and received an honorable mention in
the specialty articles — social issues category.
Debbie Miller, an assistant professor at JBU, received a first-place award in the collegiate division in the category of faculty adviser of student publication, station, or site for advising The Threefold Advocate. Miller also received awards for work done in her previous job in devel
opment at Ozark Guidance. She received firstplace awards in specialty
articles — personal essay
and in communications program or campaign and second in public relations
materials — brochures.
Jamie (Brunk) Smith, a 2000 graduate of JBU, placed first in web and so
cial media — blogs, corporate or for-profit for “The Day Facebook Died (and why it shouldn’t have been your website in the first
place).” She also placed
second in web and social
media — website edited
or managed by the entrant (nonprofit, government or educational) for “Give
Camp NWA website.” Chris Whittle was a co-entrant
on Smith’s website entry.
All awards are for work completed during 2019.
First-place winners in
the APW contest advance
to the National Federation
of Press Women competition if the winners are
NFPW members. This year,
30 Arkansas first-place winners competed at the national level. National awards were scheduled to
be presented at the NFPW
conference in Little Rock in June 2020. To protect the health of its members, the
NFPW board has decided
to postpone its conference in Arkansas until 2021 and will present the 2020 national awards online.