SDSU JMS Students Stand Out as Strong Contenders at This Year’s SPJ Awards
San Diego State’s Journalism and Media Studies students proved to be tough competition at this year’s Society of Professional Journalists San Diego Pro Chapter awards. The chapter awarded 14 honors to SDSU students, along with two scholarships.
This marked SDSU's second year participating in the competition, and JMS students secured four first-place finishes, an improvement over last year's second- and third-place results. SDSU’s newspaper, The Daily Aztec, earned second place in both the Best College Newspaper and Best College News Media Website categories.
Two recent graduates of SDSU JMS, Noah Lyons and Serena Neumeyer, received the San Diego Area Journalism Awards Merit Scholarship. Lyons, a recent journalism graduate, was awarded a $1,200 scholarship.
“I found out about the scholarship opportunity while I was on the SPJ board serving as president. Various board members of SPJ were talking about promoting the awards and I had a little bit of extra time so I did the application,” Lyons said.
While at SDSU, Lyons worked for the Daily Aztec, EdSource, and the San Diego Union-Tribune. He also took a variety of journalism classes, mentioning professor Schmitz Weiss and professor Codden as his most influential mentors.
Lyons said the classes he took in the JMS program, “Challenged me in ways I wasn’t anticipating which helped me become a better journalist.”
One key aspect of the program that stood out to Lyons was the relationships he formed with his professors.
“Each teacher brought their own unique vision and style to teaching. A lot of them were really invested in your success. When I got a new job professor Codden and professor Schmitz Weiss were some of the first people I told,” Lyons said.
Faye Ogawa, the SDSU School of JMS Marketing and Events Coordinator, shared her thoughts on the awards.
“We are incredibly proud of our JMS students for all of their outstanding achievements this year. It’s amazing to see this generation of students represent our department so well and I eagerly anticipate their future accomplishments as I am confident they will make us proud,” Ogawa said.
The 2025 SPJ awards open this January and various SDSU organizations will be entering the competition.
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