Southeastern won the general excellence award for Onsite Competition at the Southeast Journalism Conference (SEJC) due to the number of students who placed in onsite competitions.
The conference, which was held at Union University in Jackson, Tenn., gave journalism students from over twenty college campuses the opportunity to listen to guest speakers and to participate in Best of the South and Onsite competitions.  
Junior communications major and assistant editor for The Lion’s Roar Newspaper Christopher Martin and senior communications major Kelsey Humble rode out of Jackson, Tenn. with a little extra hardware: first place certificates in the Best of South and Onsite Competitions, respectively.
Martin placed first for the best news graphic designer, while Humble won first place in onsite entertainment writing.
“I have to thank the staff I work with,” said Martin. “I was very surprised to have won, but I am honored to have been chosen first out of a great pool of entrants.”
The Southeastern Channel won Best of the South college video news program, and tied for first in Best of the South best college television station with Troy University.
Senior Chrissy Carter placed second in Best of the South for hard news reporter, second for best TV journalist and third for journalist of the year for her work on The Southeastern Channel. Senior Jessica LeBlanc took first place in the onsite TV and News Reporting competition.
Senior Lindory Dyson tied for second place in the Communications Law onsite test and was very excited upon returning home.
“This was the best SEJC I have been in so far,” said Dyson. “This may be my last year, so I was hoping this year’s conference would be something I never forget. The people I was surrounded by made the trip, but the awards were the icing on the cake.”  
The PR Crisis team of Catherine Monica, Rachel Montoya and Crystal Schayot placed third in their category.
“I think it was a really valuable and worthwhile experience,” said Monica, a senior majoring in communications. “It was a great opportunity to network and a great opportunity to meet people in my major, and to learn a lot about journalism as a whole.”
In addition, the PR Campaign team of Adrienne Rousse, Claire Salinas and Jasmine Tate won second place in their category.
The University of Louisiana at Lafayette will host the SEJC in 2014. For more information, go to www.sejc.org.
 

-This article has been edited to include the student Jessica LeBlanc, who was mistakenly omitted from the original story.