Six Mile Post wins 12 awards
GHC’s student paper takes on four-year colleges for first time at GCPA, wins 12 awards
Rome – Feb. 19, 2015 – After being matched up against four-year colleges for the first time, Georgia Highlands College’s student newspaper, the Six Mile Post, brought home 12 awards from the annual Georgia College Press Association (GCPA) award ceremony in February.
SMP Advisor and Professor of English Kristie Kemper said it shaped up to be a very nice transitional year, having gone from competing in the two-year division to the four-year division.
“I think we did really, really well. The competition was very strong,” Kemper said. “[The SMP staff] worked really hard preparing each contest entry.”
Kemper added that this validates all of the SMP staff’s hard work and is important for the college community, because it shows that GHC has a media program and students in that program that GHC can be proud of.
The event, which is held in Athens, awarded the Six Mile Post for work published in 2014. As a whole, the paper won first place in General Photography, third place in Best Website and third place in Best Campus Community Service-Sports.
Many individual GHC students also took top honors.
Pedro Zavala was given first place in General Photograph-Sports. He is a former SMP editor-in-chief and is currently working toward a respiratory technician degree at Georgia State University.
The managing editor of sports Karlee Helms and Zavala collectively took second place in Best Photo Essay. Helms, who is from Rockmart and attends the GHC Floyd campus, was additionally awarded third in Best Entertainment story and second in Best Sports story.
The Six Mile Post won first, second and third in the Best Editorial category, with Rome native Kiston Dowler, current editor-in-chief, taking first place; Cedartown native Derweatra Hammock, managing editor of design, taking second; and Zavala placing third.
Tatiana Smithson took second place in Best Photograph-News, and is currently working for student life on the GHC Cartersville campus.
Brianna Drake, who lives in Silver Creek and currently attends the GHC Floyd campus, won third place in Best Photograph-News.
On top of winning several awards, the Six Mile Post saw two staff members elected to the official GCPA office.
GHC Douglasville campus student Holly Chaney, staff writer, was elected treasurer, and Helms took a spot on the GCPA board.
Antonio Garcia, a former SMP managing online editor, who currently attends Georgia State, was elected GCPA president.
Anna Douglas, the managing online editor, attended the conference with several other SMP staff members. Along with representing the SMP at the award ceremony, Douglas said that attending the seminars provided was very beneficial.
“I learned a lot about online culture… and how to get people engaged with our website,” she said. “Which is important,” she added.
Kemper stated that she appreciates how much the GHC community supports the Six Mile Post, noting that each campus has a liaison and at the main campus two advisors, which she said is only the beginning of the support the student paper receives at GHC.