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The Vermilion, UL Lafayette’s student newspaper, has earned a second-place award from the American Scholastic Press Association in New York.

This isn’t the first time in recent years The Vermilion has received national recognition.

The ASPA award is the newspaper’s fourth national award in the past three years. The Vermilion placed fourth overall at the 2021 Southeast Journalism Conference. In 2020, the newspaper earned a first-place individual writing award and a second-place overall award from SEJC.

For its recent award, the ASPA evaluated content, editing, design, art and illustrations, general plan and creativity. The Vermilion – which competed against schools from across the country – received perfect scores for originality, editing, connecting content to the campus community and overall page design.

“This award is a reminder of the creative minds and determined spirits that work together to make a quality newspaper that’s catered towards informing the student body,” said Lena Foster, Vermilion editor-in-chief.

“It means that our hard work is not going unnoticed and that we have to raise the bar even more now. I am so grateful for this achievement, and we intend to grow as a collective and to consistently produce work that not only reflects our efforts but our passions at The Vermilion.”

Adhamm Safford, Vermilion news and managing editor, said the ASPA award “represents all the hard work done by our editors, writers and designers.”

“It takes a lot of hours from a lot of people to be able to put out a quality paper each week, and I’m glad that the creativity and effort of our staff has been recognized in this way,” he added.

Matthew Tarver, director of Student Publications, agreed. “The Vermilion staff is continuing to do a superior job of focusing on issues that affect our students, staff, faculty and alumni. The past two years have seen our student media staff excel under the most unusual circumstances.”

“Whether they were forced to deal with the pandemic, a hurricane, a freeze, technology issues, staff limitations – or combinations of these elements – they continued to regularly produce publications that are highly valued by the campus community.”

Photo caption: The Vermilion, UL Lafayette’s student newspaper, has earned a second-place award from the American Scholastic Press Association. Staff members, front row from left to right, are: Marie Ducote, Allons editor; Meg Norwood, illustrations manager; Lena Foster, editor-in-chief; Adhamm Safford, news and managing editor. Back row, from left, are: Julia McDow, layout and production manager; Andre Broussard, photo editor and L'Acadien editor-in-chief; Boyd Daniels, business and website manager; Malik Jones, photo coordinator; and Isaac Henry, sports editor. Submitted photo