The Youngtown Edition, County College of Morris’ (CCM) award-winning student run newspaper, recently added seven more awards to its long list of accolades from the New Jersey Collegiate Press Association (NJCPA), this time for the 2017-2018 academic year.
Competing in the two-year college category, the newspaper won top honors in news writing, editorial writing, enterprise investigative reporting, layout and design and third place in photography and overall website. On April 14, at the NJCPA’s awards luncheon held at the Courtyard Marriott in Jamesburg, The Youngtown Edition received second place in General Excellence for the third consecutive year.
Formed in 1952, the NJCPA’s mission is to advance the prestige and integrity of NJ college newspapers. NJCPA is the charitable arm of the New Jersey Press Association.
Youngtown advisor and CCM adjunct professor Russ Crespolini, who is also the editor of The Progress newspaper, is proud of the student journalists for their hard work, due diligence in reporting and their dedication in producing a bi-weekly campus newspaper.
Crespolini respects the judgement of the NJCPA stating that the association members are an incredibly dedicated and talented group of journalists who take their craft very seriously.
“To be acknowledged by them is a big validation to these students. Their work, I feel, speaks for itself, but it is nice to be acknowledged by those whose job it is set the industry standard. It echoes the compliments from the campus community and local officials the staff received this past year.”
The 2017-2018 awards received were as follows:
First Place – News Writing for “Student Government Shutdown: ‘Petty’ disagreements, ‘dysfunction’ and misconduct allegations see group disbanded,” published April 26, 2017– Beth Peter of Califon, Jannat Sheikh of Hopatcong, Moe Rahmatullah of Parsippany
First Place – Editorial Writing for “Support proposed New Voices of New Jersey legislation,” published April 26, 2017 – Brett Friedensohn of Morris Plains
First Place – Enterprise / Investigative Reporting for Youngtown’s fire safety certificates investigative series published in October and November of 2017 – Brett Friedensohn, Jannat Sheikh
First Place – Layout and Design for the Halloween issue published Oct. 25, 2017 – Staff of The Youngtown Edition
Second Place – General Excellence – Staff of The Youngtown Edition
Third Place – Photography for Youngtown arts section in the Wednesday, Nov. 8 issue – Arianna Parks of Bedminster
Third Place – Overall Website for work on youngtownedition.wordpress.com – Alexa Wyszkowski of Rockaway, Marisa Goglia of Madison
“These newswriting awards are not easy ones to get,” Crespolini said. “We had some stiff competition. But we challenged ourselves there and with our design this year so those were standout awards for me.”
The Youngtown Edition is produced completely by the students at The County College of Morris with the assistance of a faculty advisor and technical advisor. The students decide on the content and no experience is required to get involved.
“That is one of the things I love about Youngtown. Every semester is different. We have new faces who come in with new ideas and interests and that informs what ends up in our pages and what awards we end up being recognized for,” Crespolini said. “Some of our members take what they learn in Professor (John) Soltes classes and expand on it with us but many come to use with no experience. They just have an interest in writing or photography or graphic design.”
According to Crespolini, another benefit of Youngtown is immediate clips and marketable skills.
“I’ve personally hired multiple students directly from the Youngtown for full time and part time and freelance work,” Crespolini said. “And some of them have used their work samples for internships and to get jobs other places as well.”
Crespolini said there are always openings at the paper, and anyone interested can send a message to youngtownedition@gmail.com.
The Youngtown Edition can be found on the CCM website at https://tinyurl.com/y9ykerry.
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Photo from left to right: Moe Rahmatullah, Beth Peter, Professor Russ Crespolini, Brett Friedensohn, Drew Natarnicola, Alexa Wyszkowski and Arianna Parks shared a smile at the New Jersey Press Foundation Awards on Saturday, April 14.
