When senior Jaelyn Stansbury, managing editor for visual and multimedia, arrived at Alabama State University in the fall of 2018, never would she have imagined that four years later she would be standing next to five ‘Best of the South” winners, and that she would be named the “2022 Best Press Photographer” by the Southeast Journalism Conference (SEJC), an organization made up of 30 universities and colleges around the southeast.
For Stansbury, and five other students who are currently members of The Hornet Tribune staff, Thomas Mulaisho, managing editor for digital content, Kendal Manns, editor-in-chief, Khalil Stewart, former sports editor, Lateef Oloko, managing editor for presentation and design and Ronald Martin, artist/illustrator, their dreams became a reality when the 2022 Best of the South winners were recently announced.
The SEJC, which holds its annual conference during the month of February, encourages students to become active members in media whether it be television, radio, online, print or multimedia. During the conference, SEJC hosts an annual “Best of the South” competition to encourage students at the various colleges and universities to present their best work for the judges to consider.
Alabama State University has been competing in the competition since 2002. This year, the staff took home more awards than previous years.
Manns won first place as the “Best Opinion/Editorial Writer;” Oloko won first place as the “Best Layout and Design;” Martin won fourth place in “Best Artist/Illustrator;” Stewart ranked seventh in the “Coverage of Special Events,” while The Hornet Tribune newspaper ranked second in the “Best Newspaper” category, and ranked fifth for the “Best Website” category.
According to Kenneth Dean, J.D., general manager for The Hornet Tribune, seven awards are the highest number of awards that The Hornet Tribune has ever won in one year from SEJC.
“Winning seven awards in one year is really an announcement telling us that we’re doing something right,” he said, “but there is always room for improvement.”
He continued.
“For the upcoming year, we will be working more closely with the Department of Communications and hopefully, we can garner more awards in the writing category. I would love to see one of our students win “Best News Story” or “Best Investigative News Story.” Manns has placed us on the right track by winning “Best Editorial/Opinion writer” but I know we can win more writing awards if we really concentrate on reporting and writing.”
Manns, who served as the editor-in-chief this year was relieved with the amount of wins despite the issues the staff faced this year.
“I’d be lying if I said I was 100% confident that we would win some awards,” he said. “It’s not because of the quality of work, it’s because of the amount of challenges we had this year. With the departure of some of our veteran members like Micah Sanders and Camille Zanders, it took some time for us to get back on track. I think it shows our perseverance.”
He continued.
“I take a lot of pride in representing a Black-run student newspaper from an HBCU. Oftentimes our general manager reminds us of the challenges that we will face as we move into a predominately white industry (media). It makes me want to succeed even more. I think it puts a chip on everyone’s shoulder to not make excuses and to work even harder to get to where we want to get to.”
Stansbury, managing editor for visual and multimedia, was taken aback by the awards won.
“It was very unexpected, but I can say that I have improved my photography over the years. I was very excited to get this award and it means a lot to me. I didn’t think we would get as high as we did, but I think that we improved from last year. I was expecting to get an award, but not first place.”
“Honestly I’m really happy to be able to do what I know how to do,” Oloko said. “Winning the award shows me that I put in a lot of work and dedication into what I am doing.”
Though proud of the high rankings and the new record of wins, cartoonist Ronald Martin wanted to win first place and hopes to do so next year.
“It’s very competitive and there are a lot of people who are competing,” he said. “So the fact that I even managed to place this year was great. I feel like when people think of Alabama State University, they think there’s not much to offer. Winning these awards shows otherwise.”
Despite being a freshman and not very familiar with the ‘Best of the South’ awards, Mulaisho, whose job is to update the website, won fifth place overall.
“Since the competition, we’ve made more improvements to the website than last year,” he said. “I think next year we might actually get first place.”
Dean said that the staff will now prepare for Associated Collegiate Press’ national competition which is held during the summer months.
“This competition is much more competitive because we are dealing with 348 competitors as opposed to 30,” he said. “Last year we won two awards, but this time I hope that we can win at least five awards. When you win awards at the national level, it helps to build confidence among the staff and it once again tells us that we are doing something right and that our students are ready to face the media world and that they are competitive.”
The SEJC is composed of the following universities and colleges: Arkansas State University, Arkansas Tech University, Austin Peay State University, Belmont University, Georgia State University, Grambling State University, Harding University, Lipscomb University, Louisiana College, Louisiana State University at Shreveport, Louisiana Tech University, Middle Tennessee State University, Mississippi College, Mississippi State University, Nicholls State University, Northwestern State University of Louisiana, Samford University, Southeastern Louisiana University, Tennessee Tech University, Tennessee State University, Troy University, Union University, University of Alabama, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, University of Central Arkansas, University of Louisiana-Lafayette, University of Louisiana-Monroe, University of Memphis, University of Mississippi, University of North Alabama, University of South Alabama, University of Southern Mississippi, University of Tennessee, University of Tennessee-Martin, University of West Alabama, University of West Florida and Xavier University of Louisiana.