The Centurion has won 12 awards at the Keystone Press Awards. Bucks was up against schools from all over Pennsylvania and walked away from Hershey with the second most awards out of all the schools who participated.

Some of the schools Bucks was up against are The Community College of Philadelphia, Montgomery County Community College and Butler County Community College.

The students who write and edit for the paper are ecstatic about the victory, and for Professor Tony Rogers, the victory is extremely symbolic of the potential the students have to make a serious impact on media in the very near future.

“Even at a community college, the students and staff care enough about maintaining high standards.” Rogers said, adding that the victories were “A testament to our work ethic” and that “students are clearly still interested in journalism.”

Co Editor-in-Chief of the Centurion, Michael T. Berchem, says that he is “Proud of all the awards.”

One award among the others stands out, the Public Service/Enterprise Package. This award is for several specific articles on a single topic. According to Berchem, “the Centurion has won this award every year for the past several years.”

This year the Centurion won the Public Service/Enterprise Package award for their Addiction package from the spring semester of last year. This focused on what this generation can be addicted to. This ranges from workaholics to the addiction to sex and drugs.

The Centurion is entirely student run, and is open to everybody. Rogers compared it to “Students running a business.” Anyone can write for the paper, and there is no obligation to continue week after week.

Maybe writing isn’t your thing; maybe you would rather take pictures. Well good news for you then, aside from writers, Berchem has said that “the Centurion is always looking for photographers and editors as well.”

As the awards clearly show, working for the Centurion is something to be proud of, and everyone who contributed feels honored to be a part of such a respected school newspaper.

The Awards won show that the Centurion will continue to be a major school newspaper for years to come, and with the new layout, courtesy of the Bucks County Courier Times, even better things may lie ahead. Skills obtained from writing can’t hurt either, as experience working on a deadline is never a bad thing. It is as Prof. Rogers said, “The experience students get on the paper translates well into real world skills.”

Awards won by the Centurion include:

1st place- Ongoing news coverage for Construction at Bucks won by Michael Hunton, Melissa Fleishman, Breanne Hillis, Matt Jobs.

2nd place- Ongoing news coverage for Bucks Tution Rising won by Kimberly Kratz, Nicolette Kampf, Melissa Fleishman.

1st place- Public Service/Enterprise Package for the Addiction Package won by Centurion Staff.

2nd place- Feature Story for Profiling professor Caryn Babaia won by Dan Perez.

Honorable Mention- Feature Story for Bucks improv group Deleted Scenes a hit won by Manuel Rodriguez.

1st place- Personality Story for The man behind the sunglasses won by Christopher Wirth.

2nd place- Review for 127 Hours Review won by Dan Perez.

2nd place- Feature Photo for Occupy Philly won by Christopher Wirth.

2nd place- News Photo for Protesters come face to face with police barricades won by Alhasan Ghazzawi.

Honorable Mention- News Photo for Obama comes to Bucks County won by Tom Sofield.

2nd place- Layout and Design for The man behind the sunglasses won by Christopher Wirth.

1st place- Website won by Centurion Staff.