Park University students received awards from the state’s top college media organizations, continuing the school’s tradition of excellence in journalism.
The Missouri Broadcast Educators Association and Missouri College Media Association’s annual convention and awards ceremony was held at the Missouri State University in Springfield, Mo., on Saturday, April 11. At that time, The Stylus was recognized with 12 individual awards and three publication awards, plus two broadcast awards.
The MBEA awarded JoShenna Richardson and Evan Berounsky with an honorable mention for their podcast, “RiverFront Rhythms.” Omar Owusu, Damien Gonzales, Alana Mathis, Isabel Barnds and Patrick Stretch earned an honorable mention for a short film titled, “A Year On.”
MCMA awarded Abby Beagel, the Editor-in-Chief of The Stylus for the 2024-25 school year, with a first-place award for an opinion piece on Luigi Mangione; second-place awards for an in-depth news reporting piece on Kansas City’s fentanyl crisis and a column about the TikTok ban; and an honorable mention for editorial/op-ed page. In addition, Beagel and JoShenna Richardson won a first-place award for editorial/op-ed page, and Beagel and Danny Burger won a second-place award for editorial/op-ed page.
Current Editor-in-Chief of The Stylus, Mati Smith, earned a third-place award for sports page design from MCMA as well as honorable mentions for sports writing for a piece about former Park Hill student Carter Jensen’s debut with the Royals as well as for sports page design. Smith and Destiny Pearson also earned an honorable mention for sports page design.
Victoria Larocca earned a first-place award for a feature on former Park volleyball players. Evan Berounsky won an honorable mention for an investigative reporting piece he wrote on parking frustrations at Park.
In addition, the Stylus staff won second place in the sweepstakes category based upon the overall quality of the newspaper, a third-place award for best overall newspaper, and a second-place award for stylusonline.org.
Park University competed against other schools in its division for the MCMA awards, which also includes Avila University, Culver-Stockton College, Drury University, Evangel University, Missouri Valley College, and William Jewell College. The MBEA awards do not have divisions, and other schools include Missouri State University, Northwest Missouri State, University of Central Missouri, Truman State University, Southeast Missouri State University, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Hannibal-LaGrange University, College of the Ozarks, as well as many of the same schools in its MCMA division.
The Stylus has been a tradition at Park University for over 130 years and as the media landscape continues to change across the globe, these awards show how Park is adapting alongside of it.
The Stylus newspaper and our media clubs are thriving at Park, and we’re always looking for more students to get involved. If anyone is interested in writing, photography, videography, design, podcasting and other types of content creation, we invite you to join us. Visit StylusOnline.org, follow our social media accounts, or comment and share. It helps student voices continue to be heard.
