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| The USA Publications delegates flash their trophies, medals, and flags after the COPRE Conference and Awards. (USA Publications Photo / Kristine Louise L. Andrade) |
THE USA Publications won 15 distinctions and medals in the recently concluded College Press (COPRE) Conference and Awards held at the Iloilo Grand Hotel, November 25, 2011.
Receiving four awards in the group contests and four awards in the individual contests during its comeback in COPRE 2010, the press corps won two trophies and five distinctions in the group contests; six medals in individual contests; and two pageant titles this year.
The Augustinian, in its first participation in COPRE since 2004, was hailed Fifth Best College Newspaper in the major awards, along with Fourth Best News Page, Fourth Best Newspaper Layout, and Fifth Best Editorial Page in the minor awards.
The Augustinian Mirror was awarded with Fourth Best Magazine Cover Design.
Last year’s second placer Dingiding ni Gusting, the latest publication which started out last year produced by the USA Publications for adopted communities of the University, was conferred as Best Wall Newspaper.
The online journ.ph blog of the USA Publications powered by Smart Communications which won fourth runner up last year was hailed first runner up in the 2nd Smart-PIA6 Campus Journalism Blogsite Contest.
Meanwhile, the editorial staff also gathered eight medals in the individual writing, cartooning, and photography contests.
Mary Leslie Eregia, editor-in-chief, won second place in news writing English category.
Hannah Grace Taba, senior writer, won fifth place in news writing and third place in copy reading both in Filipino category.
Andre Karl Faculin, associate editor, won fifth place in copy reading English category and first runner up in Mr. COPRE 2011.
Jerson Elmido, wall newspaper editor, won second place in editorial cartooning.
Kristine Louise Andrade, photography editor, won fifth place in photo-journalism.
And, managing editor Josefa Maria Castro was named Miss COPRE 2011.
The participation of the USA Publications in COPRE only resumed in 2010 after the press corps decided not to join the said award-giving event last 2004.
In partnership with Smart Communications, the Philippine Information Agency – Regional Office 6 (PIA6) organizes the annual COPRE Conference and Awards and the Campus Journalism Blogsite Contest.
In a press release of PIA6 on their official website, 76 college publications participated in COPRE 2011.
Congratulations to all of us!
ReplyDeleteFifth place isn't EXCELLENT. Fifth place does not make for a distinguished publication. It's not how many awards you get; it's how many a great awards you get.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, stop sensationalizing the Gawad Graciano Lopez Jaena award in an 'in-your-face' way because the Publication earned those, the current editorial board did not. Winning 5th place did not prove any prowess, just as well.
Second, your rankings in COPRE are incomprehensible. As a former editor in chief of the Publications, I resent how you got the newspaper and the magazine that previous generations worked so hard for to the lowest of low.
This is personal. We fought to make it clear that we were independent from the administration. We fought for our funds so that every student journalist won't have to spend his own money just so he could cover and write a great story, so opportunistic moderators won't live off of the Publication's funds, so individuals can practice their passion without monetary limitations.
We fought for access to information - we spoke to the heads of the university, we called politicians, we met with lawyers to interpret legal documents, we took strolls with the university president. We had a voice.
Not only did we pioneer releasing in a monthly basis for The Augustinian, which by the way was the first among WV's university publications, but we also gained enough moral and financial support to beef up our funding for a colored front page and centerfold. Of course, the Pub earned it by winning Best College Paper, Best News Page, Best Layout Design, Best Editorial, Best Editorial Cartoon, Best Sports Page, Best Feature Section, etc. EVERY SINGLE YEAR.
But the darling of it all is the Augustinian Mirror. During our time, it was already the best in the region, and no one could doubt that. But we gave tribute to it by making it regional. We broke down the university's walls and pushed our limits to the edge of Antique's cliffs, how Negros moved markets, our writers lived with Aetas and slept in downtown streets with aboriginals so their stories can be heard. The issues were regional-wide and regional we did win. We owned COPRE. We did not even need to think about Best in Cover Design, or Best Literary Page, or Best Mag Feature, etc. We already know we've won it, it's just getting all the other minor titles that gave us the giggles.
The Publication, for so many decades, was second to none. Every time the Augustinian Publication walked in the COPRE venue, everyone knew who we were and we knew we we're going to win. The Pub was so good it launched its own Gusting Journalism Workshop. People paid to be trained by the editorial board. It was such a success it became one of the most sought after workshops in WV; it even created the SanAg Campus Press Awards. The father president attended those events.
I hope this gives you a glimpse of The Pub's true glory before. It's not just another organization where you can be popular or a place where you can get scholarship. This just cannot be enough.
If you're not up for the challenge of putting the Pub back up to its feet again, then you might as well withdraw your membership from the editorial board.
Wow, way to go, deleting a post.
ReplyDeleteHere's an advice: all one thousand of your love letters - throw them out the window. All your hate letters- keep them. Those are the only one who really count anyway, because those are going to help you improve yourselves.
Deleting my post is one sure way of proving you don't deserve to be in the Pub.
I even have a feeling I'll meet you all very soon. And when we do, somebody's gotta have to own up who deleted my post.
Love,
A former EIC.
That's putting "personal" down in a whole new way, Miss or Mister Former Editor-in-Chief. But I must say I agree with you. The screaming headline about The Augustinian getting a Fifth Place in the COPRE almost threw me off. It's really nothing to crow about. On second thought, I have to remind myself that these are college students we're talking about. Some of them may have been writing for a while, but I'd like to think that--and from what I see--most are beginners. And, we're not talking about the likes of The Philippine Collegian here or Heights, are we?
ReplyDeleteSo, all the hullabaloo about being the region's best is plain pep talk. What I suggest our fellow Augustinians in the publications office do, is to go beyond and to crush the culture of mediocrity where they're writing from. If they are such good and progressive writers how come they don't have a hand in keeping the university website updated? I've been reading the same content in there for the last couple of years!
What I'm told is that there's currently a dearth in talent at the USA Publications. I hope I'm wrong, but it looks like after years of "feeling good" about being exempt from the COPRE competition the recent bunch of editors did not go through a rigorous screening--that's some three to four years ago, including the present ones. I remember coming across a number of glaring errors in the editorial.
The trouble with most college writers in second-tier universities like San Agustin, is that they don't read anything else other than their fellow student writers' works. Now, I wasn't a hotshot editor in my time in college, but I got to spend long hours of beer-guzzling with editors from The Philippine Collegian, Heights (of Ateneo), and Malate (DLSU Literary Folio). They read The Atlantic Quarterly, George, Details, Harpers, Raygun, The New York Times, The Yale Review, GQ (Gentleman Quarterly,) The Guardian UK, and so on.
Take it from there, pub peeps.
Hello there former EICs. As one of the current EICs, I would like to meet you some day so that I could ask you to help us out (if it's o.k. with you).
ReplyDeleteI personally apologize.
I know we have broken the momentum of the glory days of USA Pub in press competitions. To make it clear, the USA Publications since last academic year have revised the screening process of the pub aspirants. There is a writing examination phase and a panel interview phase. In the writing examination, those who check and rate the outputs of the applicants are chosen carefully by the moderator. In comparison with the previous years you have mentioned, only writing exams took place.
We thank you for your tips. I am assuring you that as EIC of the pub, I am doing everything I could to make this press corps the best as it was before. It depends on the staff if they will do the same. I have shared to them what you have said because I believe that what you are sharing to us is constructive.
Ray Adrian Macalalag
The Augustinian Editor-in-Chief
I wasn't asking for an apology. You probably mean the one who came before me. She says "it's personal, and she "resents" what you're doing with the paper today. I believe she's asking for an apology and more.
ReplyDeleteOK, I was never the editor-in-chief of The Augustinian in my time. But our editor went on to get the sixth place at the UP College of Law Admission Test. He also became a TOSP National Awardee. Tough luck, eh? But you can take my word for it: Read, read, read. Doesn't Saint Augustine say, "Tollege Lege, Tolle Lege"?
Then get out of San Agustin and make waves in the bigger world-at-large. Success tastes much sweeter if you beat people far smarter than you are. It's not about fame anymore. It's what they call (intellectual) respect.
Second Fiddle