NDSU students were highly successful during the recent 2014 North Dakota Professional Communicators College Communications Contest. Award winners were recognized at a special awards luncheon May 9 at the corporate offices of Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota in Fargo.

More than 60 college students and teams from six North Dakota and Minnesota schools took part in the annual competition. Participating institutions were NDSU, University of North Dakota, Bismarck State College, Minot State University, University of Jamestown and Minnesota State University Moorhead.

Senior journalism major and newly named Spectrum editor-in-chief Sam Herder
 took second place in news reporting, first place in feature story, first place in personality profile, first place in personal column and first place in sports writing.

Junior journalism major and Spectrum sports editor Colton Pool received first place in news reporting, third place in feature story, second place in sports writing and first place in the “Section Regularly Edited by Entrant” category.

Junior English major and Spectrum opinion editor Caleb Werness received third place in the editorial category.

Senior Adam Kempenich, who is majoring in new media and web design, received first place in “Web Page Design.”


SU TV News took second and third place in the “Regularly Scheduled News/Information Program” category.

The NDSU Enhance Group
 placed second in “Yearbook/Annual Literary Magazine.”

Communications professionals in each field judged entries from student journalists, editors, broadcasters, photographers, designers and writers. A total of 85 awards were presented in 34 categories.

NDSU is recognized as one of the nation's top 108 public and private universities by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education.