Staff writer wins ICPA Best In-Depth award

A reporter for The Trailblazer recently won an award for feature writing as part of a statewide competition.

Tay Simmons, journalism, Princeton, won an award in the Feature Writing category at the Indiana Collegiate Press Association (ICPA) Conference on March 30 at IUPUI in Indianapolis.

Simmons wrote a story in the fall of 2018 titled “International students experience the American Thanksgiving holiday.” The story came in 3rd place for having the best in-depth story written about the international students who were able to experience an American Thanksgiving on the VU campus.

Simmons explained how this story helped him and others better understand the international students’ traditions, also allowing the international students to get a better feel of the American tradition.

Simmons believes that the story was a great idea because it allowed the students to “incorporate traditions.”

When asked why he thought he got the award of “best in-depth”, Simmons explained that he took time to really understand the other people in the room during the interview. Getting as much detail as he could to get the best informative story that could easily allow anyone reading to feel the same excitement he did.

Simmons explained that winning the award was a shock, but that he could not take full credit because The Trailblazer students all have a part to take in any story.

“I am just glad that we were all able to win the award,” Simmons said. “I don’t think I won, I feel as the journalism program won because we are all a team, and hopefully we’ll win more awards in the future.”