Jaguar Student Media shines at TIPA

Texas A&M University-San Antonio’s students received 20 awards from the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association (TIPA) for work previously published in 2018 and on-site contests this semester.

Representatives from Jaguar Student Media, which includes The Mesquite digital news site, El Espejo magazine and Univision Media Lab’s radio and television program attended the annual TIPA convention, hosted in Corpus Christi from March 13-16, during the university’s spring break.

The convention held on-site contests and workshops for attendees, and convention organizers judged previously published work from 2018 which schools submitted prior to the event.

A&M-San Antonio won six on-site awards and 14 awards from previously published work, including eight first-place awards.

The Mesquite staff won first place in headline writing, in-depth reporting and overall design—website.

Joyce Raposo, editor-in-chief of The Mesquite, won first place for her feature story about Marikate Maggio, an 18-year-old freshman who died in an automobile accident on Sept. 26, 2018.

She said TIPA offered various workshops, including topics in photography, journalism, social media and public relations. She attended five workshops and said TIPA was a good bonding experience for the Jaguar Student Media team.

“If you weren’t competing you had the opportunity to go to workshops,” Raposo said. “The workshops really opened our eyes to things we’re not doing and things we should be doing.”

TIPA is the oldest state collegiate press association in the U.S. and their objectives are to “improve college journalism, to raise the standard of college publications and to bring the colleges and editors into closer and more vital relationships,” according to the TIPA website.

Communication senior Seyla Balderas won the most awards of the 12 attendees from A&M-San Antonio: first place in sports game story, second place in Spanish division-general news reporting, second place on-site in Spanish TV announcing and second place on-site in Spanish radio announcing.

She said she made a lot of new friends from different schools, it was something she’s never done before and she had a great first-time experience at TIPA.

“I’m really happy. This just demonstrates all of the work I’ve done with Univision Student Media Lab,” Balderas said. “I have learned a lot and you see that it pays off.”

Communication senior Victoria Martinez said this was her second opportunity to attend TIPA. This year, she went in having a better understanding of what to expect. She said with more experience from the previous year’s competition, she won honorable mention on-site for feature photo, the same category she competed in last year.

Martinez said she’s never been challenged under that type of pressure before and believes “that’s when you shine.”

“I think it’s a great opportunity to put your skills to the test, show them what you’re working with, show them what you got and representing your school,” Martinez said.

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2019 TIPA On-Site Contest Results