By Nana Ramsey
The Scene staff
The Scene won 22 awards at the Missouri College Media Association conference April 11 at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, Mo.
The MCMA is an organization of student newspapers on university and college campuses across the state. Forest Park competes in Division 4, which includes community colleges.
“I was getting tired having to walk up to the table (at the awards banquet),” joked mass communications major Brian Ruth, The Scene’s layout editor. “We were getting so many awards.”
The Scene took second place in Best Overall Newspaper (with Crowder College in first and St. Louis Community College at Meramec third) and third in the Sweepstakes category. The latter is based on the number and type of individual awards.
The Scene Cartoonist Jerome Clark shut out all competition in the Story Illustration category, winning first, second and third places.
“I didn’t mean to take it, but there was no time for faking it,” said Clark, an art major known for coming to school in a suit and tie every day.
The Scene also shut out in the Regular Column category, with former Layout Editor and Columnist Justin Tolliver taking first and second and Editor, Business Manager and Columnist Chris Cunningham placing third.
Other first-place awards went to former Reporter Link Johnson, now a Student Government Association member, for news writing; and Reporter Jasmine Hsieh for feature writing.
“We had a really strong staff in the spring, summer and fall last year,” said Teri Maddox, The Scene’s faculty adviser. “In some cases, it was hard to decide which stories to enter. There were just so many good ones.”
The Scene’s individual awards went to Link Johnson, first place, and Evan Sandel, second place, news writing; Jasmine Hsieh, first place, and Scott Allen, honorable mention, feature writing; Evan Sandel, second place, in-depth news reporting; Justin Tolliver, first and second place, regular column; Chris Cunningham, third place, regular column; Jennifer Hearn, second place, Scott Allen and Evan Sandel, third place, and Carl Anderson, honorable mention, entertainment review; Yuanyuan Ji, second place and honorable mention, feature photography; Jerome Clark, second place, political/editorial cartoon; Jerome Clark, first, second and third place, story illustration; Justin Tolliver, second place, and Shawna Stewart, honorable mention, page-one design; and Katherine Keller and Yuanyuan Ji, honorable mention, photo page.