The Leader takes home top award at ICPA competition

The Leader won first place in General Excellence for the first time since 2016 at the Illinois College Press Association (ICPA) competition on Feb. 22.

At ICPA, The Leader falls under the division of Non-Dailies Under 4,000 students.

Ron Wiginton, faculty adviser for The Leader for over twenty years, was not surprised by The Leader’s success.

“I am once again delighted that the professional press has recognized the good journalism being produced on this campus.” said Wiginton.

In addition to the General Excellence Award, The Leader also took home 13 other awards, four of which were in the Open category that included all of the competing college newspapers in the state.

Josie Zabran, current editor-in-chief and winner of four awards for her sports writing, was surprised by her awards.

“I kind of fell into sports writing by accident and then fell in love with it,” said Zabran. “Winning meant a lot and really just inspired me to do even better.”

Syeda Sameeha, former editor-in-chief and winner of the first place award for feature story, was proud to have led The Leader during this award period.

“If you've been following The Leader's journey, 2019 was a big year with our reporters breaking some of the biggest stories on campus. While we aren't doing this important work for the awards, it's amazing to be recognized as the best small college newspaper in the state, and it feels like our hard work has paid off,” said Sameeha. “Historically, The Leader had always won General Excellence, but for the past couple of years we weren't, so I'm also really proud to be the Editor-in-Chief who reclaimed our title.”

Zabran credited Sameeha for the General Excellence win and expressed it giving her motivation to continue leading The Leader staff to future achievements.

“Sameeha worked so hard to get that award, and I'm proud to say that I was on her team for one semester,” said Zabran. “It makes me want to keep her legacy going.”