Island Waves Receives Eight Awards at 2019 TIPA Convention

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Several student journalists from the Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi student newspaper, Island Waves, were awarded for outstanding work at the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association (TIPA) Convention held March 13-16 at the Omni Bayfront. During the convention, more than 250 student journalists from 30 schools across the state attended workshops led by industry professionals and competed in on-site news gathering and design contests. Students were also recognized for work published in 2018.

“We have an incredibly talented staff, and I’m so happy they were recognized,” said Jennifer Bray, Island Waves faculty adviser and professional assistant professor of English. “TIPA is very competitive. The sheer size of the membership alone makes for an impressive organization. Our students gained so much practical knowledge from participating in the conference, not only from competing but from attending workshops about all aspects of the industry.”

The Island Waves was established in 1993 and is currently staffed by 21 students who work on all aspects of the paper, including web editing, multi-media, distribution, and advertising. Sierra Lutz, current editor-in-chief of Island Waves, won multiple TIPA awards.

“It is a huge group effort to keep our website updated and publish the paper every other week. Everyone is on-call constantly,” said Lutz, junior graphic design major. “Gaining recognition for our work both in writing and design was a great honor and really encouraging. Knowing that our design work did so well has motivated us to be more visually driven in the future and that is a goal we will definitely strive to achieve in the fall 2019.”

Awards for on-site contests include:

• 1st Place for Magazine Design – Sierra Lutz
• 1st Place for Editorial Writing – Raul Alonzo, reporter and junior Media Studies major

Additionally, more than 50 schools competed in various categories for work previously published or broadcast in 2018, and results for the Newspaper Division 3 contest are:

• 1st and 3rd Place for Static Ad Design – Sierra Lutz
• 1st Place for Photo Illustration – Sierra Lutz
• 1st Place for Interactive Graphic – Matthew Tamez, reporter and junior Communication Studies major (for work created for The Foghorn while Tamez attended Del Mar College)
• Honorable Mention for Column – Caleigh Sowder, copy editor and junior English major
• Honorable Mention for In-Depth Reporting – Jessie Monsivais, reporter and senior Media Studies major
• Honorable Mention for Sports Game Story – Jessie Monsivais

For more information

Islanders can pick up a copy of Island Waves at “Coffee & a Paper” every Thursday morning in the Mary and Jeff Bell Library breezeway or in one of the newspaper racks around campus. The publication is also available on the Island Waves Website or Twitter.