Southeastern Channel staff members Carson Fryou and Brendon Smith were recently awarded individual honors at the Southeast Journalism Conference held February 23-25 at Troy State University in Troy Alabama. Fryou was awarded a first-place award in sports television reporting while Smith garnered a second-place mention for sports writing. “It was a great feeling to win those awards and to represent my school in person at a large regional event,” said Fryou, who also placed third in the News Production competition. “It was exciting not only to win an award,” said Smith, “but also compete against some of the best student journalists in the south.” These distinctions were earned as part of an on-site competition requiring students to cover a live sporting event and submit content before a given deadline. Other Southeastern students were also named as winners in the SEJC “Best of the South” contest for 2023. These students include Yumi Domangue for illustration, Samantha Sims for feature writing, and Kennith Woods for editorial writing.
Also recently, the entire Southeastern Channel was honored with a national second-place award by the Broadcast Education Association for its Nov. 17th ESPN + production of the Southeastern Lady Lions basketball game against LSU. This high-profile event was highlighted as part of the organization’s annual Festival of Media Arts student competition featuring nearly 1900 submissions from over 300 participating universities nationwide. “It’s great to be recognized for our work on such a big game,” said courtside reporter Mackenzie Fletcher, “the atmosphere for the game was pretty surreal. It’s an experience I’ll definitely remember from my time as an undergraduate staffer at the channel.” Students participating in this production included Fletcher, Carson Fryou, Brendon Smith, Jermaine Kelly, Kendrick Allen, Joliette Vincent, Jules Dormain, Emmbre Perry, Alexis Genovese, Chase Gispert, Bogi Csordas and Christian Vavasseur. Graduate students Natalie Kelly and Alyssa Schiaffino also assisted with gameday production.
