The Centurion won 13
awards in the 2010
Collegiate Keystone Press
Awards Contest, a competition
for colleges and universities
from across
Pennsylvania.
It was the first year the
contest had a separate division
for the state’s 14 community
colleges. In the
past, all Pennsylvania colleges
and universities had
competed together in the
annual contest.
Journalism Professor
Tony Rogers said he had
been pushing for some
time for a separate division
for community colleges.
“It’s something that I’ve
been advocating for, for a
while,” said Rogers, faculty
adviser for the
Centurion.
Rogers said it was unfair
to pit the Centurion with its
tiny staff against the likes
of the Daily Collegian student
paper at Penn State,
which has a staff upwards
of 100 people.
“This change puts us on a
level playing field” Rogers
said.
There are many rules that writers need to follow
when entering the contest.
Each piece is judged by
members of the
Pennsylvania Society of
Newspaper Editors, so
those who have firsthand
experience can critique the
young writers of America.
In the handbook of
Collegiate Keystone Press
Awards Contest Rules and
Entry Categories, it states,
“Entries will be evaluated
based on the following:
subject matter (worthiness,
reader appeal, relevance,
full development); presentation
(pleasing style, literary
excellence, incisiveness,
research, enterprise,
originality); effectiveness
(objectivity, persuasiveness,
reader identity, reader
response).”
There are also 16 entry
categories listing the qualifications
for each individual
section of writing along
with additional rules to follow.
The contest judged work
produced in the spring and
fall semesters of 2009.
Although the Bucks
Centurion did an outstanding
performance when
competing in the large pool of participating schools, it
does even when narrowing
the contest into the two
divisions: Division I –
four-year colleges and universities;
and Division II –
two-year colleges.
The Centurion has been a
part of this contest for
many years. For the 2010
awards, the paper has
received an exceptional 13
awards: five coming in at
first place, six coming in at
second place, and the other
four received honorable or
mention.
“We’ve won a lot of
awards in the previous
years, so I wasn’t surprised,”
said Annmarie Ely,
a 23-year-old journalism
major from Doylestown and an editor at the
Centurion, commenting on
the number of awards
Bucks students won this
year.
The awards won included
stories, columns, photos,
layouts/design, and profiles.
The hard work and
determination of the
Centurion writers paid off.
The Scholastic and
Collegiate Keystone Press Awards give writers an
opportunity to showcase
their work. Artists have
museums, actors and musicians
have theaters and
concert halls, and now
journalists have the same
opportunity to display their
achievements.
It is only in time that
readers of the Centurion
will recognize the professionalism
and the dedication
that the paper brings
on a weekly basis. From
the superior photographs to
the exceptional writing, the
Centurion will continue to
have great accomplishments
in years to come.
Check around the campus
for the Centurion with
a new edition released
every Tuesday.