Journalism grads honored with press awards

Nicholson School journalism graduate Isaac Babcock, ’04, was a big winner at the Florida Press Association Better Weekly Newspaper awards on July 7 in Destin, Fla. Babcock, associate editor of The Winter Park-Maitland Observer, won first place for his sports feature “Rollins resurrects a legacy,” detailing one man’s mission to revive Rollins College’s football, a team that hadn’t played organized football since 1949. One judge wrote, “Tremendous feature sports story! Excellent job of research and use of photographs to tell the story of the past and future of football at Rollins.” 

Babcock’s story “American dreamer,” chronicling a Winter Park woman’s fight to adopt a Namibian girl with spina bifida, earned first place in the faith and family reporting category. One judge wrote, “Beautifully written account of one girl’s difficult journey. We really come to care about Elizabeth and to rejoice in the happiness she’s found.”

The Community Media Division of Turnstile Media Group, which includes the Observer and its sister papers Seminole Voice and East Orlando Sun, took home seven awards in all, winning first place in five editorial categories. Jenny Andreasson, ’07, also a journalism graduate of the Nicholson School, is managing editor of Observer Newspapers.