Knightly News wins awards in state journalism competition
By Michael Lear-Olimpi
Knightly News Editor
michaellear-olimpi@centralpenn.edu
The Knightly News Media Club has brought three student-journalism awards home to Central Penn.
A single story, a series of stories and a podcast won honorable mention in this year’s Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association (PNA) Student Keystone Media Awards Contest.
Central Penn won in Division II competition, for colleges and universities with fewer than 10,000 students.
“It’s a wonderful honor and resume-builder for our students to win distinction in this statewide competition,” Professor Michael Lear-Olimpi, co-adviser of The Knightly News Media Club @ Central Penn College, and editor of The Knightly News, said. “Our students are talented, and they’re prepared, through intensive hands-on focused education, to enter the communications field – corporate communications or journalism – with their Central Penn degrees. It’s my pleasure to work with our students, and I and co-adviser Professor Paul Miller are very proud of them.”
Media-club President Jenelle Dulack commented: “WOOT WOOT!!”
The honorable-mention works are listed below, with links to the articles from the authors’ names. The podcasts are linked from the series title.
“Layers of Community,” a series of stories spotlighting diversity among Central Penn faculty and staff, was one of the winning entries. Ashley Reichard, Jenelle Dulack, Jamie Harmon and Alexa Shughart wrote segments for the series, which was a collaboration by The Knightly News, the President’s Commission on Diversity and Inclusion, and the Institutional Diversity and Equity Committee.
A story on Duck Donuts CEO Betsy Hamm, who delivered the 2021 Central Penn Business Partner of the Year keynote address, written by recent corporate communications graduate Leslie Heimbaugh, was another winner.
Heimbaugh and media-club co-adviser Paul Miller shared honors for “Knights at the Movies,” a series of podcasts in which the two discuss flicks and directors.
Heimbaugh won a 2020 PNA honorable mention for a review she wrote of a movie shown in the 2019 CPC Film Series.