Student journalists take prizes at TIPA meet

Published or Revised April 07, 2011

Paris Junior College student journalists who staff "The Bat," the PJC student newspaper, brought home a first and four second-place awards as well as two honorable mentions at the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association (TIPA) conference in Fort Worth, Texas. Quentin Carpenter, co-editor of "The Bat," took first place Saturday in live, on-site news photography competition, besting contestants from two- and four-year colleges and universities. "I was incredibly excited and surprised when they called Quentin's name, and I think he was, too," said Sharon Dennehy, journalism instructor and adviser to "The Bat." "His photography has improved immensely in the last year or so, especially since he has enrolled in [PJC continuing education instructor] Marvin Gorley's photography class, and we always expect excellent photos from Quentin. But when our students compete and win against students from four-year colleges, it just makes the win all the sweeter," she said. Carpenter said he knew when he shot his winning photo at a mock event staged by TIPA. "Bam, a fight breaks out, people run, everything is slow motion to me, and then I get my shot," he said. "Everyone else is flashing left and right, but once I got my shot, I moved to the corner and waited. I knew I had a keeper, no need to worry. I knew this was something." The other awards "The Bat" staff brought home were in the "previously published" competition where work is submitted in December for the previous year; it is judged strictly against that of students from two-year colleges comparable in size to PJC. More than 500 students from 60 colleges competed in writing and photography contests Thursday and Friday in and around downtown Fort Worth. Work was submitted anonymously and judges chose Carpenter's photo of the staged student disturbance as the winning photo. Also competing from PJC were co-editor Christina Gunlock, and staffers Michael Carter, Alexander Thomas, Devon Childers and Samuel Arnold. Previously published winners were: Carpenter, second place, sports feature story and honorable mention, feature photo; Stephanie Norman, second place, news story and news feature story (Norman's entries were from last spring when she was still a PJC student); Carter, honorable mention, page one design, and "The Bat" staff, second place, headline. This is the second time "Bat" student photographers have won first place in TIPA photo competition. Two years ago, former "Bat" editor Norman and staffer Randy White won first place in the two-person photo essay contest. Both are now students at Texas A&M University — Commerce.