The Collegian places second for best newspaper at Golden Leaf Awards
The Collegian captured five total awards in its first-ever appearance.
SEWARD, Neb. — On Saturday, The Collegian participated for the first time in the annual Golden Leaf Awards (GLAs) on the campus of Concordia University.
The GLAs is the flagship end-of-academic year conference of the Northern Plains Collegiate Media Association (NPCMA), which The Collegian has been a member of since last summer.
Fellow NPCMA schools in attendance were host Concordia (Neb.), Chadron State College (Neb.), Doane University (Neb.), Peru State College (Neb.), the University of Nebraska at Kearney, and Wayne State College (Neb.).
In total, The Collegian took home the following five awards as the first organization outside of Nebraska to ever participate in the GLAs:
Brett Esch’s opinion story placed first for Best Sports Column
Rebecca Schlosser’s entertainment story placed second for Best Arts and Entertainment Story
Lindsey Pfannenstiel’s Fall Fest photo placed second for Best Feature Photo
The Collegian staff placed third for Best Social Media Presence
The Collegian staff placed second for Best Overall Newspaper
Only work published from Jan. 1-Dec. 31, 2022 was eligible for submission to a panel of journalism experts from across the United States serving as judges.
“I’m so, so proud of our staff and how they picked up on a brand new way of doing things this year,” Editor-in-Chief Brett Esch said. “These results are a direct testament to their hard work. To enter an extremely competitive competition like the GLAs and have this strong of a showing is special.”
The second-place finish for Best Overall Newspaper saw The Collegian place ahead of Chadron State’s The Eagle — which won first in the category for 10 consecutive years from 2012-2021.
“I can’t thank our readers enough for their support of our mission,” Esch said. “As long as our editors, writers, and photographers continue to focus on serving the Bethel community, the awards will take care of themselves for years to come.”