The Leader takes home 14 awards at ICPA competition

The Leader won 14 awards at the Illinois College Press Association (ICPA) competition on Feb. 20.

This year, the ICPA conference and award ceremony took place virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Out of the 14 awards won by The Leader, four were in the “Open” category — involving all the competing newspapers in the state.

Marisa Karpes, current Editor-in-Chief of The Leader, credits the hard work of staff for The Leader’s success at ICPA.

“Despite the circumstances of this past year, everyone at The Leader made it work and was still able to produce high quality work that ended up getting the recognition it deserved,” said Karpes. “It is an honor to be leading this team and to be part of this paper.”

Eric Lutz, faculty adviser of The Leader for his first year, also took pride in The Leader’s accomplishments.

"I am immensely proud of the work The Leader editors and staff have done this year, particularly in such difficult times, and the recognition they received at ICPA is well-deserved,” said Lutz. “I'm proud to work with such talented student journalists and am excited to watch them build on this hard-earned success."

Below are the full list of awards The Leader won:

Open Category (statewide competition)

Honorable Mention, Full-Page Advertisement, Arturo Magallanes

Honorable Mention, Graphic Illustration, Arturo Magallanes

2nd Place, Other Cartoon, strip or panel, Jasmine Lillis

2nd Place, Entertainment Supplement, Arturo Magallanes & Jackie Murillo

Divisional Category (schools under 4,000 enrollment)

Honorable Mention, Editorial, Staff

Honorable Mention, Column — excluding sports, Marisa Karpes

Honorable Mention, Feature Story — other than sports, Gianna Montesano

Honorable Mention, Sports News Story, Joslyn Galeaz

Honorable Mention, Online News Site, Staff

3rd Place, In-Depth Reporting, Afaaf Amatullah

3rd Place, Headline Writing, Josie Zabran

2nd Place, Feature Page Design, Arturo Magallanes & Lexi Holmes

1st Place, Headline Writing, Gianna Montesano

1st Place, Editorial, Staff