Chansin Bird, a junior biblical studies major and journalism minor, was given the 2007 President’s Award for Collegiate Journalism Oct.13 at the Baptist Press Collegiate Journalism Conference in Nashville, Tennessee. The annual award included a $1,000 scholarship.
The president of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee gives the national award to the person who demonstrates “sustained excellence as a student journalist,” according to the Baptist Press Web site. To enter the competition, Bird submitted a portfolio of 10 articles, including work she had published in The Washington Post, USA Today and the Fort Worth Star Telegram, as well as the Belmont student newspaper. Bird (pictured above with Terry Mattingly, director of the Washington Journalism Center in D.C. and Scripps-Howard religion columnist) was able to write such high-profile clips because she attended one semester at the Washington Journalism Center, where she was an intern for Religion News Services, a national wire service that covers religion news.
Bird also took first place honors for news writing in the individual newspaper awards competition for an article published in the Belmont Vision.
