All-Kansas Award Winner 2015 to Baker Orange

Baldwin City, Kansas — The Baker Orange won the All-Kansas Award as the state’s top private college newspaper during the Kansas Collegiate Media spring conference April 12-13 in Wichita, Kansas. It marked the 16th time in 18 years the Orange received the All-Kansas honor.

Also, in separate contest results announced on April 13, the Baker Orange website was named as the Great Plains Journalism Student Website of the Year by the Tulsa Press Club. The other two finalists for the Great Plains website award were Oklahoma State University and Oral Roberts University.

Highlighting individual honors, senior editor Taylor Shuck, Lawrence, Kansas, pocketed $50 as the second runner-up for KCM Newspaper Journalist of the Year. In addition, she was one of three finalists for the Great Plains Student-Journalist of the Year.

The KCM contest also included individual contests for specific skills displayed in works published from mid-February 2014 to mid-February 2015. The Orange won 10 first-place awards in the private-college division. Students could enter multiple entries in each category.

Sophomore Chad Phillips, Andover, Kansas, claimed first in four categories: news photography, photo essay, online technical innovation and online photo gallery. He also had the second-place entry for feature photography and the third-place entry for online photo gallery.

Senior Kayla Infanti, Olathe, Kansas, was the other Baker student to take first in more than one category as she won for front-page design and interior page design.

Other first-place winners were 2015 graduate Tera Lyons in multimedia reporting, senior Lauren Bechard, Gardner, Kansas, in sports feature writing, junior Chad Mullen, Eudora, Kansas, for sports news writing, and sophomore Sarah Baker, Wellsville, Kansas, for online audio.

Second-place recipients from BU included Mullen in sports feature writing, Phillips and junior Khadijah Lane, Lawrence, Kansas, for an online photo gallery, junior Victoria Bostic, Harrisonville, Missouri, in online audio, sophomore Jim Joyner, Overland Park, Kansas, in sports news writing, 2015 graduate Chris Ortiz for a photo essay, and 2015 graduates Sara Bell and Xiomara Nunez in multimedia reporting.

Third-place winners included junior Taylor Schley, Topeka, Kansas, in ad design, Shuck and Schley in multimedia reporting, Shuck in the news writing and illustration categories, the Orange editors for editorial writing, Infanti in infographics, Lyons for a photo essay, sophomore Mykaela Cross, Eudora, Kansas, in review writing, freshman Kallie Fischer, Rossville, Kansas, in sports feature writing, former photo editor Jordan Ratterman, Topeka, Kansas, in feature photography, and 2015 graduate Callie Paquette for sports photography.

The KCM and Great Plains awards cap a banner school year for the Baker Orange. In November, the website won the Best of Show competition at the Associated Collegiate press national convention in Philadelphia as the first-place website in the small-school division.