Written By Daniel Cocklin
Photos By Weston Hook
Special Report
This March, students of The Roddey-McMillan Record and The Johnsonian attended the South Carolina Press Association meeting and award ceremony, where they were recognized for their achievements and attended panel discussions led by professional journalists.
From The Roddey-McMillan Record, Lanie Cauthen won first place for arts and entertainment Story. Kit Krosby, Mark Bontempo and Claire Meuret won first place for best photo story.
The Johnsonian was awarded third place in General Excellence. Current and former staff members including Camille Bailey, Mariana Beltran, Chase Duncan, Evi Houston, Claire Meuret, Mia Molfetta, Jackson Stanton and Clark Vilardebo all were awarded for their work in The Johnsonian. Bailey received first place in cartoon illustration, while Vilardebo received first place for page one design.
Alexis Wilson from The Panther at Claflin University won Student Journalist of the Year in the under 10,000 division and Kylie Tutterrow from The Tiger at Clemson University won Student Journalist of the Year for the over 10,000 division. The Panther won first place in General Excellence in the under 10,000 division. The Daily Gamecock from the University of South Carolina won first place in General Excellence in the over 10,000 division.
The conference featured a panel where members of student publications can receive advice and tidbits from professional journalists. The panel featured SCPA’s 2025 Journalist of the Year Alaysha Maple from the Sumter Item, Caleb Bozard from the Post and Courier Columbia, Emmy Ribero from Morning News and Maddison Sharrock from the Coastal Observer.
Maple graduated from the College of Charleston where she was studying marketing, but she loved to write so she applied to be a sports reporter, knowing nothing about sports, and was redirected to her current work. Maple’s piece of advice to the student publications is to “keep saying yes, even to the hard things.”
Bozard was an editor for the Daily Gamecock during his time at the University of South Carolina.
“The best thing you can do as an intern is be game for anything and show up ready to work,” Bozard said. “Every internship you have could turn into a full-time job, so treat it like one.”
Ribero, who graduated from University of South Carolina, worked for the Daily Gamecock before graduating and now works at the Morning News. He told panelgoers that it is alright to start your career in a small town and not at a bigger, more recognizable paper.
“Confidence in yourself and your work and who you are is so important,” Ribero said. “Because you can end up in a small town. But that doesn’t mean that you’re not going to be some big journalist you dreamed you were going to be someday.”
Sharrock, a graduate of Coastal Carolina, started working for the Coastal Observer less than a year ago. She encouraged the college journalists attending the awards meeting to have confidence in their ability and chase after the big stories.
“You can do hard things, so do them. The worst thing they can say is no.”