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Holmes Community College’s Growl newspaper won three awards during the 2025 Better News/Media Contest – Student Division. The contest was held in conjunction with the 27th Annual O.C. McDavid Journalism Conference held March 20 at the Embassy Suites hotel in Ridgeland.
In the Community College Division, the Growl won first place for Best Editorials. The student reporters who contributed to the winning editorials included Macey Bowman of Pelahatchie and Kyanti Fleming of Canton. The Growl also won second place for Best Cover and third place for Overall General Excellence.
Bowman, Fleming and Public Relations Specialist/Journalism Instructor Mary Margaret Busby represented Holmes and attended the conference.
The Growl, published four-five times per academic year, covers news from the college’s nine-district area, while also including editorials on current events, reviews of trending entertainment, updates on events in the college’s district and more. Staff members also serve as writers for Holmes’ new blog, the HCC Grid.
The O.C. McDavid Conference is named after former managing editor of the Jackson Dailey News and since 1999, the O.C. McDavid Memorial Fund, administered by the Mississippi Press Association (MPA) Education Foundation, has underwritten the cost of the conference to promote journalism education in the state.
The conference featured a presentation on the new Roy Howard Community Journalism Center at the University of Southern Mississippi, a new professional news service staffed in part by students at USM. This presentation was moderated by Joshua Wilson, community liaison for the Center. Following Wilson, Chris Todd presented, “The Art of Photojournalism.” For the keynote address, attendees had the opportunity to hear from Mississippi Today Editor-at-Large Marshall Ramsey, a noted author, cartoonist and two-time Pulitzer finalist. The event concluded with the presentation of the Better Student News/Media Awards.
For more information about MPA, visit www.mpa.org.
For more information about Holmes Community College’s student publications, contact Busby at (601) 605-3376 or mbusby@holmescc.edu.
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IN THE PHOTO: Pictured are Kyanti Fleming of Canton and Macey Bowman of Pelahatchie, reporters for Holmes Community College’s newspaper The Growl. Bowman and Fleming won first place in Editorials in the Better Newspaper Contest held in conjunction with the O.C. McDavid Journalism Conference on March 20 at the Embassy Suites in Ridgeland.
