Florida A&M University’s School of Journalism and Graphic Communication’s student-led publication, Journey Magazine, won awards in two categories during the 2022 SPJ Sunshine State Awards.
The winners were announced during a ceremony in Fort Lauderdale on Aug. 27. Journey Magazine’s articles,”Tally 19: The Enduring Trauma of Revolution” and“Florida College Students Wary of In-Person Instruction Amid Omicron Surge” earned third place for Best Serious Feature and Best COVID-19 Coverage, respectively.
“I’m incredibly proud of Journey’s enduring legacy as an award-winning magazine,” said Mia Uzzell, former Editor-in-Chief for Journey Magazine and reporter of “Florida College Students Wary of In-Person Instruction Amid Omicron Surge”.
“Attending an HBCU means we are committed to telling underreported stories. To be rewarded for that is the sort’ve motivation we need to keep going,” she said.
Uzzell, a senior broadcast journalism student, was also a finalist for College Journalist of the Year.
Akilah Winters, former Journey Magazine staff writer and spring 2022 broadcast journalism graduate, reported on 19 protestors who were arrested in Tallahassee during a September 2020 George Floyd protest in her article entitled “Tally 19: The Enduring Trauma of Revolution”.
For Winters, this was the first time she’s been awarded for her reporting and felt that it was important to “capture the [protesters] voices, hone in on what they felt like was wrong, and for the public to see what these people went through”.
“I really love that the story got the attention it deserved,” Winters said. “I was just ecstatic and proud of myself for working so hard on that story.”
A full list of winners for 2022 SPJ Sunshine State Awards can be viewed here: https://spjflorida.com/sunshine-state-awards/
