by Tricia Duke '19

The Knox Student brought home 25 journalism awards from this year’s Illinois College Press Association conference, smashing through the record set last year when Knox College's student-run newspaper won 19.

TKS has a lengthy track record of success at the annual conference. Editor-in-chief Erika Riley attributed the paper’s success to the strong community among TKS staff and among the general student body.

“We’re all friends on staff and know each other pretty well. We collaborate really well with each other, and it’s an easy environment to feel supported in,” she said. TKS is advised by Tom Martin, editor of The (Galesburg) Register-Mail.

Assistant Professor and Chair of Journalism Jim Dyer said that the awards demonstrate the advantage of the staff’s intellectual diversity.

“The awards were from a wide variety of categories, from investigative reporting and spot photography to page design and multimedia reporting, which underscores how incredibly well-rounded the TKS staff is,” he said.

TKS staff members have many different academic majors and come from a lot of social groups. As a result, according to Riley, “We all know somebody who knows somebody, which definitely helps.”

Riley added that, in addition to the hard work of the staff, the paper’s success depends on the fact that Knox College students give the paper a lot of interesting and inspiring stories to report.

“Having such an active and vocal student body really plays a big role in the paper. Without students standing up for what they believe in and making things happen on campus, we would pretty much have no newspaper,” she said.

The awards and recipients' names are listed below.

In its division (non-dailies under 4,000), TKS won the following awards:

• The TKS editorial board: first place for editorial
• Katy Coseglia: first place sports photo
• Naja Woods: first place sports feature
• Sierra Henry and Connor Wood: first place news story
• Julia Volpe, Allie Glinski, and Zarah Khan: first place in multimedia reporting
• Jonathan Schrag: first place sports news story
• Connor Wood and Sierra Henry: first place in-depth reporting
• Sierra Henry: first place feature story
• Emily Mosher and Zarah Khan: second place sports feature
• Allie Glinski: second place feature story
• Sam Jacobson, Zarah Khan and Michelle Dudley: second place feature page design
• Rafael Cho and Lillie Chamberlin: second place photo essay
• Dan Perez: second place feature photo
• TKS Staff: third place general excellence
• Julia Volpe and Allie Glinski: third place in multimedia reporting
• Emily Mosher: third place sports news story
• Emily Mosher: third place sports page design
• Zarah Khan: third place in-depth reporting
• Rafael Cho: third feature photo
• Katy Coseglia: third place sports photo
• Jordan Anderson: honorable mention sports game story
• Julia Volpe: honorable mention in spot news photo