The Montclarion won nine New Jersey Press Foundation (NJPF) awards in the 2022-2023 New Jersey College Newspaper Contest, including two first place awards, four second place awards and three third place awards.
The contest awards college newspapers and digital news organizations throughout the state for their articles, photography, videos and layouts.
Emma Caughlan, editor-in-chief of The Montclarion, said she is grateful that the team was recognized for their work.
“I’m so proud of the team,” Caughlan said. “Everyone has put so much into the work we do and it’s so wonderful to see it get recognized.”
The Montclarion received two first place awards in the editorial writing category for “Don’t Go Breaking Our Arts” by Maddye Belov-Boxer, former opinion editor, and the online video category for “Montclair State Alumna is Leaving Her Mark on NJ” by Katie Lawrence, video editor.
Lawrence reacted to her first place win.
“When I heard I won an award for online video, I knew it was for the Ink Gallery feature,” Lawrence said. “It was such a great experience to go into the project with Hannah Effinger and bring an off-campus story to the students. Tiffany Perez and everyone at Ink Gallery Tattoo Studio were beyond welcoming and made this one of my favorite videos to put together.”
NJPF gave The Montclarion four second place awards. Darian Mozo, Spanish translator, won second place in the arts and entertainment/critical writing category for “‘Noise’ Reflects Violence and Frequent Disappearance of People in Latin American Countries.”
“I still can’t believe I won an NJPF award, I’m still in that transition of wanting to believe it and not being able to,” Mozo said. “I wrote that article with a lot of feeling because the movie was very powerful for me and my whole family to see.”
Mozo is thankful for the opportunities The Montclarion has given her.
“I am so grateful for The Montclarion and how much the staff has helped me progress as a writer since I started in 2021,” Mozo said. “Thank you, and cheers to Latin American talent!”
Hannah Effinger, production editor, won second place in column/opinion writing for “I Survived the Great Williams Hall Flood.” Effinger and Ian Long, former production editor, won second place in layout and design for “Life In A Pandemic: Montclair State Reflects of Two Years of COVID-19 #Since2020.”
“I’m so honored to be recognized by NJPF,” Effinger said. “We put in so much hard work as a team year-round, and it’s great to see it pay off for everyone.”
Sal DiMaggio, feature editor, won second place in the feature writing category for “EOF Barbershop: Making Men Leaders The Old School Way.”
“I’m very grateful to have such a supportive team behind me to help me write stories like this,” DiMaggio said. “It’s my goal to tell stories that impact people, and the people at The Montclarion make me able to do that.”
The Montclarion received three third place awards. One of the third place awards was in the general excellence category, which recognized the entire staff.
Avery Nixon, opinion editor, won third place in the editorial writing category for “We Want Wifi and We Want it Now.”
“I felt very honored to be recognized at NJPF,” Nixon said. “Opinion pieces and editorials are such an important piece of journalism and deserve to be recognized.”
John LaRosa, former photo editor, and Julian Rigg, former assistant photo editor, won in the photography category for “Photo Essay: Welcome to College Prom.”
The award winners are invited to participate in an awards banquet on April 22.
