'The Lookout' earns prestigious award

By Larry Hook
The Lookout Adviser

The Lookout, LCC’s student newspaper, earned first place in the General Excellence category of the Michigan Community College Press Association’s Journalism Competition.

The announcement was made Saturday, April 13 during the MCCPA’s annual conference at Central Michigan University.

This was the third time in four years that The Lookout earned the General Excellence Award from the MCCPA. The contest included a total of nine community college newspapers from all over Michigan.

The Lookout Editor in Chief Mallory Stiles said she was thrilled that the staff earned the General Excellence award once again.

“To me, winning the General Excellence award proves that even though The Lookout staff is small and a lot is required from each staff member, we are still able to put out the best community college newspaper in the state,” Stiles said. “It also means a lot to give something back to an institution that has given me so much.”

In addition to winning the competition’s most coveted honor, The Lookout staff won eight other awards in the competition. They are as follows:

First place – Sports Column – Jayden Hewitt
Second place – Sports News Photo – Kaitlyn Delaney
Second place – Humor Column – Mallory Stiles
Second place – Feature Photo – Jake Leslie
Third place – Sports News Photo – Julie Newell
Third place – Editorial – The Lookout Staff
Third place – Sports News Story – Jayden Hewitt
Honorable Mention – Sports News Story – Michael Leek

In addition to the awards ceremony, the conference at Central Michigan University included guest speakers from various news agencies around the state, including MLive and The Detroit Free Press. Workshop topics included creating a brand, photography, news writing and podcasting.

The keynote speech was given by Jennifer Dukarski of Butzel Law, who addressed the legal and ethical issues of artificial intelligence (AI), as well as its future in journalism.