Southeastern students win Mark of Excellence Awards
Thursday, June 27, 2019 
by: Tonya Lowentritt
MARK OF EXCELLENCE WINNERS- Southeastern Louisiana University students at the Southeastern Channel won nine awards, the most of any university in television and broadcast videography, at the 2018 Mark of Excellence Awards given by the Society of Professional Journalists at its Region 12 conference. Winners, from left, include Parker Berthelot of Denham Springs, Amanda Kitch of Covington, Dylan Domangue of Houma, and Andrew Scherer of New Orleans. Not shown are Schuylar Ramsey of Springfield and Freddie Rosario of Luling.
HAMMOND – Southeastern Louisiana University students at the Southeastern Channel
won nine 2018 Mark of Excellence Awards, including four first-place honors, at the
Society of Professional Journalists’ annual Region 12 conference.
Southeastern Channel students received the most television and broadcast videography
category honors out of all universities in the competition, including the most first-place
awards with four and the most second-place finalist awards with five.
The Mark of Excellence Awards honor the best of collegiate journalism from a
calendar year. SPJ’s Region 12 comprises all universities in Louisiana, Mississippi,
Arkansas and Tennessee.
Mark of Excellence Awards are judged by SPJ industry professionals directed to choose
entries considered the best in student journalism. If no entry rises to the level
of excellence, no award is given.
“The Society of Professional Journalists has long been one of the most respected
journalism organizations, and for our students to eclipse those at much larger universities
in the region by a good margin is truly an outstanding achievement,” said Southeastern
Channel General Manager Rick Settoon. “These awards show the high quality of broadcast
journalism in both news and sports production by our students, and I’m very proud
of their high standards and strong efforts. I’m extremely happy that their hard work
has been rightly recognized.”
Amanda Kitch of Covington won two of the first-place awards for her stories produced
for the Southeastern Channel’s award-winning student newscast “Northshore News.” She
won for “Broadcast News Videography” for her story on the “Krentel Homicide” and for
“Broadcast Feature Videography” for her segment on “Mosquito Control” in St. Tammany
Parish. Kitch is now a television news reporter for WAFB-TV (CBS) Ch. 9 in Baton Rouge.
Andrew Scherer of New Orleans won first place for “Television Sports Reporting”
for his feature on Southeastern basketball star Marlain Veal. Scherer is now a television
news and sports reporter for WXXV-TV (FOX/ABC) Ch. 25 in Gulfport, Miss.
Dylan Domangue of Houma, a senior, won first place in the “Broadcast Sports Videography”
category for his videography of the 2018 Southeastern vs. LSU basketball game in Baton
Rouge. The winning stories for both Domangue and Scherer were produced for Southeastern
Channel broadcast on its national award-winning student sportscast “The Big Game.”
Kitch also garnered finalist honors (second place) for “Television News Feature
Reporting” for her “Mosquito Control” story, while Parker Berthelot of Denham Springs
was a finalist for “Broadcast News Videography” for his videography for the “Northshore
News” story, “CiCi’s Pizza.”
Schuylar Ramsey of Springfield was a finalist for “Broadcast Feature Videography”
for her “Northshore News” story on “Fuller Homes,” while Freddie Rosario of Luling
won second-place finalist honors for “Television Sports Reporting” for his “Big Game”
story on the Lady Lions vs. Abilene Christian softball game. Ramsey is now a television
news reporter for WABG-TV Delta News (ABC/FOX) Ch. 15 in Greenwood, Miss., while Rosario
is a newscast director for KALB-TV (NBC) Ch.5 in Alexandria, La.
“Northshore News” was also honored as a second-place finalist for “Best Overall
Television Newscast.” “Northshore News” has won first-place honors in the region six
times.
In its 16 years of existence, the Southeastern Channel has won over 400 national,
international and regional awards, including 17 awards and 63 nominations from the
Emmys. The channel can be seen on Charter Spectrum 199 in Tangipahoa, St. Tammany,
Livingston and St. Helena parishes, along with its live 24/7 webcast and video on-demand
at www.thesoutheasternchannel.com. The Southeastern Channel can also be seen on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
