The Missouri College Media Association held its annual conference virtually this year, including the award ceremony where Missouri Valley College student journalists received seven awards.

Senior Adam Balkin was named twice in the ceremony, taking first place in the news writing division and also picking up an honorable mention in the investigative reporting category. Balkin’s stories included a piece on a student reporting a racial slur being used in a classroom as well as student reactions to the Covid-related guest policy.

Alumna Chardonnae Parker received a third place award for in sports writing for work she did during her senior year. Parker’s piece was a memorial article written about Valley cowboy Tucker Depew, who died in a traffic crash while on his way to a rodeo competition.

Former student Brandon Johnston was recognized with an honorable mention for a sports column he wrote while attending MoVal. Johnston wrote an opinion piece exploring how overrecruitment in college athletic programs is unfair to student athletes.

In addition to the awards for writing and reporting, MVC students swept the news video category. The KMVC News staff took first, second and third place for video packages they produced during 2020.