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Student Newspaper Wins Big

The Leader has been named the nation's 4th best college paper and Chicago's top collegiate photographer.

The Leader, Elmhurst College’s student newspaper, recently earned multiple awards in both national and state-wide competitions.

Out of hundreds of competing newspapers at The Associated Collegiate Press National College Newspaper Convention (held Feb. 28 through March 2 in San Francisco) The Leader was awarded fourth place in the category for four-year universities, non-weekly.

Judges included editors at the San Francisco Chronicle, the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register.

“Essentially, the professional journalists who judged the contest decided that, of all the bi-weekly newspapers printed in America last year, The Leader printed the fourth-best paper of them all.  I cannot begin to tell you how proud I am of the staff,” said Ron Wiginton, associate professor of English at Elmhurst College and faculty adviser to The Leader.

One week earlier, The Leader brought home a total of 16 awards from the state convention of the Illinois College Press Association (ICPA), held February 22-23 in Chicago.

Significant among these awards was first place for the annual “Shoot Chicago” segment, in which numerous college photographers were given five hours to travel anywhere within the city to capture an image of a specified topic. The prestigious award, decided by Chicago Tribune photo staff, was given to Leader Photo Editor, Genevieve True.

The Leader was ranked third in Illinois for General Excellence among all newspapers (non-daily) at schools with an enrollment under 4,000.  First-place awards included those for best photo essay, news story, special supplement, and sports feature story.

“It isn't easy to be this consistent over the years, but our record in state competition confirms that The Leader has maintained its status as one of the best college papers in Illinois,” said Wiginton.

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