Ashley Khamtrashyan
Assistant Editor
Texas A&M University-San Antonio’s Jaguar Student Media attended the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association on March 22-25 in Fort Worth.
A&M-San Antonio had 19 students from The Mesquite, El Espejo and Enlace attend workshops, network and compete in live contests.
During live competitions, student journalists from all over the state got to show off their skills in radio, television, sports, magazine, and many more. Competitions were examples of real-life experiences journalists may face in their respective fields.
Ten awards were given to A&M-SA students during the live contests, including several first-place winners:
- Lily Buckert- TV Announcing
- Serenity Bogert- Critical Review
- Sarah Cervera- Live Video News
- Elizabeth Lopez- Two-Person Photo Essay
- Miranda Rodriguez- Two-Person Photo Essay
Buckert, communications senior, described her feelings about the contests.
“The breaking news event was about as real-world experience as it gets,” Buckert said. “Also, I think as a small southside school, we get underestimated, so this really helped us.”
El Espejo received 12 awards in the following categories:
- Headline Writing
- Story Package Design-Magazine
- Overall Design-General Magazine
- Feature Story
- Spanish Feature Story
- Podcast
- Critical Review
- General News Video Story
- Podcast
Rodriguez, co-editor-in-chief for El Espejo Magazine, explained her mindset when competing and what it means to be at the conference.
“I just try my best, I always tell everyone to try your best,” Rodriguez said.
“Being there gave El Espejo more reassurance that what we are doing is getting noticed,” Rodriguez said. “We are doing something important with this magazine.”
Enlace received four awards in the following categories:
- Newscast-Video
- In-Depth News Reporting (Audio)
- Documentary-Video
- Podcast
“We were able to see other Universities from the area,” Enlace storyteller Terry Perez said. “Even news networks were bringing opportunities such as internships.”
Perez said this was her first year attending TIPA and she didn’t know what to expect.
“Enlace is a team that is trying to rebrand from previous years,” Perez said. “TIPA showed us other journalism talent from other students, which was amazing.”
The Mesquite received 19 awards in the following categories:
- Feature Story
- Photo Story
- Sports News
- Environmental Portrait
- General News Multimedia Story
- Editorial
- Photo Illustration
- General Column
- Multimedia Feature
- Critical Review
- In-depth Reporting
Amber Esparza, editing manager for The Mesquite said TIPA was a challenge.
“That’s what I think is important about these competitions, they test you under different challenges that you are going to experience when you are actually working.”
Raul Trey Lopez contributed to this story.
