“The Bat” staffers tops in TIPA photojournalism

Published or Revised April 14, 2009

Two student journalists from Paris Junior College beat out 30 other student photographers from both two- and four-year Texas colleges this weekend at the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association (TIPA) annual convention in Dallas. Sumner sophomore Randi Johnson and freshman Stephanie Norman took first place in the Two-Person Photo Essay contest. The staff of [i]The Bat[/i], PJC's student newspaper, attended the 100th anniversary convention with more than 600 other student journalists and their advisers. Students competed in live contests and heard speakers from all areas of print and broadcast journalism. "I am so proud of Randi and Stephanie," said Sharon Dennehy, PJC journalism instructor and adviser of [i]The Bat[/i]. "The photo essay theme was 'the big city,' and their assignment was to go shoot photos in downtown Dallas. They worked on a tight deadline and were up against photographers from four-year colleges who had much more sophisticated photography equipment than they did. Apparently the judges liked the view of 'the big city' by two photographers from the country." The two-person teams were required to turn in five photos, and judging was anonymous. Norman, co-editor of [i]The Bat[/i], also won a second place in magazine page design. [i]The Bat[/i] co-editor Marta Goerte, a freshman from Telephone, went on a tour of [i]The Dallas Morning News[/i]. Quentin Carpenter, a sophomore from Honey Grove, and Ali Pry, a sophomore from Paris, competed in sports writing and sports photography contests and toured the new Dallas Cowboys stadium.