Former Urbana Advisor Wins CMA Student Champion Award

Emily Andrea Sendin, who served as advisor to Urbana—the literary arts magazine at Eduardo J. Padrón Campus from 2007 through 2022—was awarded the Dan Reimold Student Media Champion Award by the College Media Association on Aug. 17.

The honor is given to advisors who advocate for student media rights. 

Sendin will be recognized at the 2023 Associated Collegiate Press/College Media Association Fall National College Media Convention in Atlanta, Georgia on Oct. 31.

“This is a really meaningful award for me,” Sendin said. “Being a student media champion is pretty much being an advocate for truth and for truth to be in the light.”

During her 15 years as advisor to Urbana, Sendin fought to protect students’ constitutional rights to free press and authorship. In 2020, the CMA awarded her a Distinguished Adviser Award.

In 2022, Sendin was inducted into the Florida College System Activities Association Hall of Fame. The 49-year-old has also received the FCSAA Bob Graham Service Award and the Thomas Ehrlich Civically Engaged Faculty Award from Campus Compact—a non-profit promoting education and community service. 

Sendin, who won endowed teaching chairs in 2005 and 2022, served as a full-time faculty member in the communications, arts and philosophy department at Padrón Campus from 1999 through 2023. She is currently an English and communications professor at Kendall Campus and is working to create a student-led feature magazine.