For Immediate Release
August 5, 2015

Suffolk's Western Press Honored With Five Press Club Awards

Suffolk County Community College’s The Western Student Press picked up five awards at the Press Club of Long Island's (PCLI) 2015 Annual Media Awards banquet including second place for Best Long Island College Newspaper. The annual PCLI media awards includes Long Island colleges among hundreds of New York and Long Island professional media vying for the coveted honors in many diverse categories.

In addition to placing as a top winning Long Island college newspaper, Williams Perez, illustrator for the Western Student Press, competed in the professional category and placed first in Best Visual Illustration for his Student Life covers. Former Editor-in-Chief Amanda Koscik picked up a third place award for Best Reporting for her stories: ESL Population Honored; National English Honor Society; Suffolk County Community College Creative Writing Festival. She also garnered a third place for Best Narrative Feature entitled What Did Suffolk County Community College Do For You? Former staff writer Daniel McFadden picked up a second place certificate in the College Newspaper Reporter category for his stories about Human Trafficking and Crisis.

Victoria Lohwasser, last year's editor-in-chief of the Western Student Press, called the second place win for the overall Best Long Island College Newspaper "Fantastic!" 

The judges recognized all of the hard work that was put into the paper and rewarded us for our efforts,” she said. "Being invited to the PCLI Awards dinner and placing second as the best college newspaper on Long Island is amazing for Suffolk since we are a monthly publication competing against big university weeklies. I know that the Western Student Press will do even better next year.”
This was Williams second consecutive year placing first in the visual illustration category. “It was really cool and an honor to win that award again,” Perez said “I was speechless.”

Faculty advisor Anita Leibowitz, who is a former career-journalist-turned-communications-professor at Suffolk, couldn't be prouder of her hard-working, dedicated student newspaper staff. "These types of wins and honors don't just happen because of luck," she explained. "It takes talent and the devotion, motivation desire and lots of work to put out an award winning publication each month while maintaining a full course load of classes. My cup runneth over with pride!"

The Western Student Press is the official student publication of the Michael J. Grant campus of Suffolk County Community College in Brentwood, NY. The College has two other campuses -- the Ammerman Campus in Selden, NY and Eastern Campus in Riverhead, NY.