KC Flare wins seven Gold Circle awards

Five Kilgore College students won seven Gold Circle Awards in the Columbia Scholastic Press Association annual academic competition.

Melissa Greene, former co-executive editor of The Flare and now a junior at the University of Texas at Tyler, won a first place for general or humor column writing for newspapers and a certificate of merit for personality profile writing for newspapers.

Greene also shared two other certificates of merit, one with Craig Cooper, Kilgore sophomore, for black and white single advertisement for newspapers and one with Nathan Cain, Kilgore sophomore, for single photograph advertisement for newspapers.

Jacob Adkisson, Hallsville sophomore, won a third place for black and white single spot news photograph for newspapers and a certificate of merit for black and white single spot news photograph for newspapers.

Sara Knight, Hallsville sophomore, won a certificate of merit for two or more pages photo layout for newspapers.

The Columbia Scholastic Press Association's 25th annual Gold Circle Awards program, its annual competition for individual achievement by student writers, editors, designers and photographers, attracted 11,959 entries from colleges, universities and secondary schools throughout the United States.

Of those entries, only 1,496 received either a First, Second, Third Place or Certificate of Merit Award during the 2008 competition.

Entries were accepted from student newspapers, magazines, yearbooks and videos either originally printed or broadcast from Nov. 2, 2006 through Nov. 1, 2007.

Columbia Scholastic Press Association is an academic program associated with the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University in New York City.

The Flare also placed second in the Texas Associated Press Managing Editors non-daily collegiate category announced at the association's annual convention March 29 in Galveston.

Two former Flare staffers also won APME awards.

Randy Ferguson, who is design director and an eight-year veteran of the Longview News- Journal, won best news page design for Class AAA newspapers.

Jamie Taylor Huckaby, designer for the Dallas Morning News, won first place for feature page design by an individual.

In the Society of Professional Journalists Spotlight contest, Kathryn Morton, won a First Place for Tabloid Page Design. Morton is former editor of The Flare and now managing editor - design for the Central Penn