Former Southeastern Channel student news reporter, anchor, and producer Amanda Kitch has been named the recipient of the “Achievement in Television” award in Southeastern’s Department of Communication and Media Studies for the spring 2019 semester. Kitch, who graduated Saturday, capped an avalanche of national and regional awards over the past three years with the departmental honor. A reporter, anchor and producer for the award-winning student newscast “Northshore News”, Kitch was named both first and second in the nation in successive years for “Video News Reporting” by College Broadcasters, Inc. at the National Student Production Awards, winning out of over 1,000 entrants from all universities across the country. She won second place in the country recently for her Broadcast Feature Videography given by the Society of Professional Journalists, and she brought home multiple first-place SPJ “Mark of Excellence” regional awards (4 states) in successive years for both reporting and videography. Kitch was named “Best in the South” for “Hard News Reporting” by the Southeast Journalism Conference (SEJC) from 40 universities in an 8-state region, and she won multiple first-place awards, including “Best of Show’, “Best TV Reporter”, “Best News Story”, “Best Newscast”, and “Videography”, in the Associated Press College Broadcasters competition out of all universities in Louisiana and Mississippi. An honorable mention student Emmy nominee, she won prestigious Emmy (two times), Louisiana Association of Broadcasters, and Capitol Correspondents Association scholarships, and she was hired as the “Louisiana Weekend” Reporter by WAFB-TV (CBS) Ch. 9 in Baton Rouge (DMA 97) two months before she graduated. Her WAFB stories air at 5 pm. Fridays and can be seen here.