Glacier wins Best Student Media in state, Mike Foster General Excellence Award for second year in a row

Photo by Lisa Couch

Glacier staff members celebrate at the Illinois Community College Journalism Association conference. Back row: Juan Carbajal, opinion editor; James Landgraf, graphic design intern; Nick Stulga, editor-in-chief; Thalia Rivera, features editor; Mo Jbara, freelance contributor. Front row: Emily Stephens, graphics editor, and Niki Kowal, arts & entertainment editor.

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By Thalia Rivera, Features Editor, and Niki Kowal, Arts & Entertainment Editor

It’s happened again. 

For the second year in a row, Moraine Valley’s student newspaper, The Glacier, was named Best Student Media in the state, and also won the Mike Foster General Excellence Award for its website. In total, The Glacier took home 20 awards at the Illinois Community College Journalism Association conference on Friday. Pieces were judged by professional journalists from around the state.

“This is such a relief,” editor-in-chief Nick Stulga said. “After all the painstakingly hard work of last semester–turning around stories in days, constantly writing and revising, WebEx meeting interviews–it feels good to say that it all paid off.”

The conference took place at College of DuPage, contenders for this year’s awards. Several breakout sessions were held over its two days–Thursday and Friday–concerning journalistic topics such as sports writing, writing excellent movie reviews, and crafting a newsletter.

College of DuPage’s student newspaper adviser James Fuller, who also writes for The Daily Herald, explained how lucky he was to get his start in the journalism industry, and he gave advice for aspiring journalists.

“Don’t wait for stories to come to you,” Fuller said. “You make stories come to you.”

At the end of the first day, Chicago Tribune reporters Christy Gutowski and Stacy St. Clair gave a presentation during a dinner in the Crowne Plaza Hotel regarding their recent coverage–and the podcast that followed–on the 40th anniversary of the 1982 Tylenol murders.

The Glacier landed first place in News Story of the Year, Arts Review, Headline, Sports Game Story, Sports Feature, Staff Editorial, Feature Writing, News Story, and Editorial Cartoon.

Stulga and former editor-in-chief Mariah Trujillo took home first place in News Story of The Year for a package of stories that followed the Ukraine war with a local angle, which earned high praise from the judges.

“Fantastic work,” they said. “This series was well-sourced, thoroughly reported, and included multiple perspectives. Strong localization of a major international issue.” 

Trujillo, who is now majoring in journalism at the University of Illinois, said she was “ecstatic” when she received the news.

“You don’t really expect to win awards for stories you wrote nearly a year ago, so when I got the text, I was beyond happy,” she said. “This is the third year in a row that The Glacier has taken home News Story of the Year, and the fact that I was able to play a role in each winning makes me feel a kind of pride I’ve never felt before.”

This ceremony showed that sense of community and teamwork we’ve tried to foster together pays off big time.”

Glacier Editor-in-Chief Nick Stulga

The Glacier has won the Mike Foster General Excellence Award again this year, making it the publication’s second consecutive win.

Mike Foster was a charter member of the Illinois Community College Journalism Association who passed away the night before the conference, on Wednesday. He taught for 34 years at Illinois Central College, retiring in 2005, and was a charter member of the ICCJA.

These wins were aided by student publications adviser Jan Kopischke and journalism professor Lisa Couch, who teaches editing in a Student Publications course. She also teaches JRN 111-Media Writing, a class that gives Moraine students a chance to have their work featured in the paper.

Omar Shalabi, who won first place in Feature Writing and News Story in the large-school division, says that “professor Couch was a very great breath of fresh air as not only a professor, but as a guide.

“She made journalism not only enjoyable, but a thing to appreciate in a way where not only are you writing, but you’re telling something about yourself through your piece,” he continued. “She made journalism a form of expression for everybody in that classroom in their own way, in a way where everyone had something to say. She made sure that everyone was comfortable finding their own voice.”

Trujillo also credits Couch for encouraging her in her pursuit of journalism. 

“Mrs. Couch gave me the opportunity to find what I love,” she said. “I think similar to many students who attend Moraine, I wasn’t quite sure who or what I wanted to be, and somehow, it all made sense after finding Mrs. Couch.”

In addition to leading the publication as editor-in-chief last fall, Stulga is responsible for five of the individual awards the publication took home, in a wide range of categories from news to arts to sports to headline writing.

“Over the two years I’ve known Nick, I’ve watched him grow into not only an incredible, poetic, versatile writer, but also an amazing leader and journalist,” Couch said.

Stulga is happy about his growth and ready for the future.

“I’m very proud of the long path we’ve all trodden down,” he said. “It feels like I’m at the crossroads, stuck between a happy and bittersweet moment.”

Next year, he will be majoring in journalism at Illinois State University, and he had a message for all the editors he’s worked with: “I’m going to miss you dearly when I move on to ISU.

“I’m eternally grateful. This ceremony showed that sense of community and teamwork we’ve tried to foster together pays off big time.”