This story originally appeared in The Vantage, Newman University’s student newspaper, published Thursday, April 14.
The staff of The Vantage, Newman’s student newspaper, won big at this week’s Kansas Collegiate Media Conference, bringing home 35 individual awards.
In addition, the paper’s editor-in-chief, Tejay Cleland, was named the Kansas College Journalist of the Year, beating out competition from all other public and private four-year colleges in the contest.
The conference, back for the first time in-person since 2019, took place Sunday and Monday at the Drury Broadview Hotel in downtown Wichita. Award winners included writers from the previous academic year as well as from this year.
More than 100 student journalists from colleges across the state attended the conference, which was put together this year by Vantage adviser and Newman adjunct professor Denise Neil.
In addition to the awards banquet, the conference offered sessions led by professional journalists from The Wichita Eagle, KSN-TV, KMUW, the Associated Press and more. Cleland, who’s worked as a full-time reporter at KWCH-TV since January, also led a session titled “How I got a job in TV news before I even graduated.”
Among the other Vantage staffers who earned awards at the event: Madeline Schnieders, Ty Wilson and Brenden Schwartz.
Schwartz, who won awards in feature writing, review writing and feature photography, said he was pleasantly surprised by the contest’s outcome.
“It’s really cool to win some awards, especially since I just joined The Vantage this year,” Schwartz said. “It really tells me a lot about myself and the natural inclination I have toward this field. So it really just encourages me to push forward with it.”
Cleland said that he was honored and proud to win the Journalist of the Year award. The last time a Newman student won was when Matt Riedl took home the trophy in 2014.
“I was definitely surprised that I won considering I was up against the public four-year schools like Wichita State and Kansas State,” Cleland said. “So to be able to win this big award and knock off the big schools at the conference is definitely a big win for the small school guys like us.”
Cleland said he is just happy and proud that the staff of The Vantage was able to earn some recognition for all the hard work they put in.
“Not only myself but a lot of other people on the staff have put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into the paper,” Cleland said. “So it’s nice to be awarded for all of our hard labor that we’ve put in throughout the entire year and be recognized for it.”
Here is the full list of awards that the Vantage members brought home:
- Vantage Staff, silver, Overall Publication: Newspaper, Newman University
- John Suffield, first place, Cartoons and Comics
- Murphy Obershaw, first place, Breaking News
- Tejay Cleland, second place, Breaking News
- Murphy Obershaw, third place, Breaking News
- Hadassah Umbarger, first place, Column Writing
- Ty Wilson, third place, Column Writing
- Brenden Schwartz, third place, Feature Photography
- Michael Alvarez, honorable mention, Feature Photography
- Brenden Schwartz, second place, Feature Writing
- Marie O’Neal, honorable mention, Feature Writing
- Murphy Obershaw, honorable mention, Feature Writing
- Madeline Schnieders, third place, Front Page Design
- Murphy Obershaw, first place, Headline Writing
- Murphy Obershaw, second place, Headline Writing
- Murphy Obershaw, third place, Headline Writing
- Madeline Schnieders, honorable mention, Headline Writing
- Madeline Schnieders, first place, Investigative/In-Depth News Writing
- Madeline Schnieders, third place, Investigative/In-Depth News Writing,
- Tejay Cleland, honorable mention, Investigative/In-Depth News Writing
- Michael Alvarez, first place, News/Event Photography
- Murphy Obershaw, second place, Newspaper Inside Page or Spread Design
- Murphy Obershaw, third place, Newspaper Inside Page or Spread Design
- Madeline Schnieders, honorable mention, Newspaper Inside Page or Spread Design
- Cole Schnieders, first place, Profile Writing
- Cole Schnieders, honorable mention, Profile Writing
- Brenden Schwartz, third place, Review Writing
- Cole Schnieders, honorable mention, Review Writing
- Tejay Cleland, second place, Sports Feature Writing
- Madeline Schnieders, honorable mention, Sports Feature Writing
- Tejay Cleland, first place, Sports News/Game Writing
- Spencer Jacobson, honorable mention, Sports News/Game Writing
- Tejay Cleland, honorable mention, Sports News/Game Writing
- Michael Alvarez, third place, Sports/Action Photography
- Michael Alvarez, honorable mention, Photo Story in Printed Publications
- Madeline Schnieders, second place, Copy Editing Contest
- Tejay Cleland, first place, Journalist of the Year
Join The Vantage team
The Vantage is the student newspaper at Newman University. It’s published weekly, and new issues of the newspaper appear on campus every Thursday during the semester.
