The Reporter And Urbana Win Top FCSPA Honors

Two Miami Dade College publications—The Reporter and Urbana—won top honors at the Florida College System Publications Association virtual conference on Jan. 29.

For the tenth year in a row, The Reporter was named the top two-year student newspaper in Florida. Urbana, the literary magazine at Padrón Campus, was selected as the top magazine in Division A for the first time.

Café Cultura, the literary arts magazine at Hialeah Campus (Division B), and AXIS Creative Arts Magazine at North Campus (Division A) won third place honors.  

Selections were based on the entries produced during the 2019-20 school year.

The Reporter placed in 16 out of 19 categories—including 11 first-place honors—in topics like in-depth reporting, sports, editorial, humor column and design. 

“I put in a lot of work into the paper and it’s nice to know that it was rewarded,” said Heidi Perez-Moreno, who served as editor-in-chief of The Reporter last year and is now a student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “If breaking news happened, we published it on the same day and that’s something I’m really proud of.”

Since its inception in 2010, The Reporter has won 149 awards from the FCSPA including 88 first-place honors. The paper covers all eight MDC campuses and had a circulation of 10,250 papers per print cycle before the pandemic. It adapted by implementing a newsletter that sends biweekly updates directly to students’ inboxes.

In October, The Reporter was selected as one of nine Pacemaker finalists in the two-year college newspaper category by the Associated Collegiate Press/College Media Association National College Media Convention.

Urbana placed in 12 out of 14 categories, including nine first-place awards in topics such as photography and artwork.

Emily Sendin, who serves as Urbana’s adviser, praised the magazine for continuing to work through obstacles like the coronavirus pandemic.

“It shows that they worked hard and were extremely talented because of how the final product came out,” Sendin said. “There was a synergy created between us that I think is also what made it happen, a very family-like feeling.”

Laura Santos-Somohano, Urbana’s editor-in-chief for this academic year, echoed Sendin’s feelings.

“We would meet until 2-3 a.m. at least twice a week,” Santos-Somohano. “Seeing that get rewarded feels amazing.”

Last year, the magazine was selected as a finalist for the Associated Collegiate Press’ Innovation Pacemaker Award. They ramped up their social media presence and launched the podcast, Urbanites.

Here are the FSCPA Awards won by The Reporter and Urbana:

The Reporter

First Place: 

• Design Content: The Reporter.
• Feature Photo: Vanessa Gimenez.
• Sports photo: Sean Mow.
• Headlines: The Reporter.
• Picture Story: Vanessa Gimenez and Vladimir Mompremier.
• In-Depth Reporting: Corbin Bolies and Heidi Perez-Moreno.
• Sports Writing: Heidi Perez-Moreno.
• Editorial: Alexa Hernandez.
• Editorial Cartoon: Alexander Ontiveros.
• Humor Column: Alexa Hernandez.
• Website: The Reporter.

Second Place: 

• General Column: Alina Halley.
• Arts Review: Corbin Bolies.
• Comic Strip: Alexander Ontiveros.

Third Place: 

• News Story: Corbin Bolies. 
• Sports Column: Daniel Tamariz.