The Leader excels at ICPA with 16 awards

The Leader attended the Illinois College Press Association conference hosted in Chicago last weekend and took home 16 awards for their work in the 2023 school year. 

In addition to the awards ceremony that served as the culmination of the event, The Leader had the opportunity to attend panels, receive critiques, and compete in the Ron Wiginton Chicago Photo Contest, renamed in honor of their previous staff adviser, who leaves behind a lasting legacy in Illinois collegiate journalism. 

The Leader competed against 26 college publications across the state in the conference’s ‘open’ categories, and 14 other publications in the small schools division of the awards, some of which included Augustana, North Central College, and the School of The Art Institute of Chicago. 

Most notably, The Leader placed second in Sweepstakes, which is the sum of all the awards won in the other categories. 

“I feel super proud of the entire staff because I felt like we had a strong showing in multiple categories,” said The Leader’s Editor in Chief, Adriana Briscoe.

Indeed, the publication was recognized across a variety of categories, with first-place accolades going to a few of The Leader staffers. Graphics editor Jennie Bosas took home the gold for her editorial cartoon, Ruffled Feathers, and former staff writers Sante Dybowski and Ericka Creek for their sports game and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) coverage respectively. 

Bosas attended the conference and was thrilled to be part of The Leader’s successes this year: 

“I’m proud to have had the opportunity to be part of The Leader’s legacy of talented student creators, especially considering how late into my University career I was able to get involved.”

The Leader was also recognized for their multimedia skills, an area the publication has worked hard to establish and sustain this past year. Sarah Glees and Ilana Garnica took 2nd place for their multimedia reporting on last year’s Ron Desantis story. Rachel Fratt, Ilana Garnica, and Abbey Mark were also awarded 2nd place for their front page layout on the same issue. 

The Leader’s staff adviser, Eric Lutz, is proud of this year’s successes, but notes that there are no plans to slow down any time soon: 

“The Leader’s had a lot of challenges, it’s been a uniquely hard year, so this is well deserved,” he reflected. “We’re going to continue to build on our successes. This shows how good The Leader is, but I think we still haven’t hit where we can.”

Open category (all schools across the state compete):

1st place, Jennie Bosas – Editorial Cartoon 

3rd place, Abbey Mark – Digital Ad

Honorable Mention, Rachel Fratt – Print Ad 

Divisional category (schools under 3,000 undergrad enrollment):

1st place, Ericka Creek – DEI coverage 

1st place, Sante Dybowski – Sports Game Story

2nd place, Rachel Fratt, Abbey Mark, Ilana Garnica – Front Page Layout 

2nd place, Rachel Fratt – Feature Page Design

2nd place, Sarah Glees, Ilana Garnica – Multimedia Reporting

3rd place, Staff – Editorial

3rd place, Sam Shulman – Feature Writing

3rd place, Jennie Bosas –  Headline Writing 

3rd place, Alyssa Kuehne – Sports Feature

Honorable Mention, Ryan Windle, Ian Murphy, Rachel Fratt, Jennie Bosas, Abbey Mark, Sam Shulman – Opinion Pages

Honorable Mention, Staff – General Excellence – Web