SPRINGFIELD — The Lamp won 13 awards for excellence in journalism, including first place for best website, as well as two other first-place awards for front page design, during the spring 2018 Illinois Community College Journalism Association conference.

“Winning first place for the website was very satisfying,” said Tim McKenzie, professor of journalism and humanities. “They upgraded the website and worked hard to make sure new content was available daily. That award was really impressive because they were competing against schools that are four and five times larger with 10 times more money for the student paper.”

The ICCJA conference was held at Lincoln Land Community College in Springfield April 5 and 6, with more than 60 people attending from community college throughout the state. More than a dozen local journalists spoke to attendees about careers in journalism, while teaching skills to improve their work. At the end of the conference, awards were given for the best work completed during the 2017 calendar year.

The awards were:

Staff, 1st Place, Website

Staff, 3rd Place, General Excellence

Staff, 1st Place, Front Page Design

Staff, 3rd Place, Front Page Design

Gracie Schweighart, 1st Place, Sports News

Gracie Schweighart, 3rd Place, Sports News

Isaac Warren, 2nd Place, News Story

Isaac Warren, 2nd Place, Page Design

Isaac Warren, 3rd Place, Graphics

S.E. Black, 2nd Place, Cartoon

Jacob Schmedeke, 2nd Place

Andrew Paisley, 3rd Place, News Story

Jack Pugh, Honorable Mention

“We had a lot of great work,” McKenzie said. “These awards are just a sampling of the great work that a very active group of student journalists created. I am very proud of all of their work.”