NEWS RELEASE

Contact: Leah Jackson (jacksonl@nsula.edu )
News Bureau
Northwestern State University
Natchitoches, LA 71497
(318) 357-6466

3/14/2005

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NATCHITOCHES - Three students at Northwestern State University earned regional Mark of Excellence awards from the Society of Professional Journalists. Leslie Westbrook won a first place award for spot news photography. Westbrook and Cheryl Thompson won second place for feature photography and Justin Shatwell won third place for general column writing.

Westbrook, a senior from Natchitoches, is a news editorial journalism major whose main interest is photojournalism. Westbrook is the photo editor for the Current Sauce, NSU's student newspaper. The first place award, a photo of two young hurricane evacuees who sought refuge on campus, is automatically entered in the national Mark of Excellence contest. National winners will be announced during the SPJ national convention in Las Vegas in October.

Thompson, a junior from Baton Rouge, is a journalism major. Thompson is a staff photographer and former photo editor for the Current Sauce. The feature photo award Thompson shared with Westbrook was for a page of photos of Northwestern's homecoming.

Shatwell is a senior history major from Natchitoches. His column reflects his political views as a moderate non-partisan seeking logical compromises to controversial issues.

"In my column, I try to emphasize that the majority of Americans are somewhere in the middle, and that we should not allow ourselves to get caught up in the rhetoric of the extreme left and right." Shatwell said.

The awards were presented during the SPJ Region 12 conference in New Orleans earlier this month. Region 12 comprises SPJ chapters in Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi and part of Tennessee.

Students in the NSU chapter of SPJ who attended the conference were Andrea Bass, Elaine Broussard, Jimmy Brown, Katie Quebedeaux and Jamie Webb, along with the SPJ advisor Dr. Neil Ralston, assistant professor of journalism.

"Competitions like this help provide examples and guideposts for students, even those who don't enter the contests," Ralston said. "For us at NSU, these contests become important because they tell our students that quality, award-winning journalism can be done here in Natchitoches; it's not something that occurs only in big cities or on big campuses with daily newspapers."

The regional Mark of Excellence contest accepted entries from student journalists at colleges and universities throughout Region 12. Entrants did not have to be members of SPJ.

The Department of Journalism at Northwestern is accredited by the Accrediting Council for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications. Only 104 of the more than 400 journalism/mass communication programs in the nation are nationally accredited.

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