Four journalism students walked away from the Southeastern Journalism Conference in Nashville carrying awards to add to their resumes.

Colleges and universities from seven states compete in the Southeast Journalism Conference for the Best of the South competition, which is based on student work done throughout the year, and in on-site competitions.

“We are proud of the achievements of our students in the SEJC competitions,” said Dr. Reginald Owens, an associate professor and Tech faculty SEJC delegate. “They compete against the best journalism students from the top schools in the Southeast United States and they succeed among the best. This is a chance for them to be recognized for the hard work that they do as student journalists.”

For the Best of the South competition, journalism seniors Rebekah Ray and Staci Parks came away with two awards each. Ray received third in Best Newspaper Layout Designer and second for Best Opinion Writer. Parks came away with third place for Best Journalism Research Paper and an honorable mention as Journalist of the Year.

Parks also received second place in the on-site competition for media law. Meredith Maines, a senior journalism and communication design major, received second place for on-site magazine layout, and Jessica Wethington, a senior journalism major received second place for on-site photography.

All four have served on The Tech Talk.

“The SEJC meeting in Nashville was a quality learning experience for our students,” Owens said. “A major focus at this conference was new media — learning about the impact of the Internet on news and information. Conference workshops focused on emerging digital innovations in the mass communications.

“At conferences like this, students get a chance to see what other students are doing. What they find out — to their surprise — is their experiences at Tech are not too much different from students at other schools.”

Written by Judith Roberts