Northeastern Illinois University Students Earn Associated Collegiate Press Awards

Northeastern Illinois University Student Media took home three awards at the national Associated Collegiate Press (ACP) College Media Mega Workshop this year. The workshop and awards ceremony were held in Minneapolis.

Eight Northeastern students including Alex Dolgin, Max Garcia, Daniel Gutierrez, Jiaming Lou, Leslie Lozada and Ryland Roberts participated in the workshop. The Northeastern student publications that received honors were: 

• Eagle Eye: 4th Place, Judges’ Decision, Best Digital Newsletter
• Fem Design: 6th Place, People’s Choice, Best Magazine
• La Mosca: 10th Place, People’s Choice, Best Magazine

Eagle Eye is an upcoming special edition from the Student Media Board, scheduled to launch in Fall 2026. Lou serves as the publication’s Editor-in-Chief.

“Eagle Eye is a resource guide that comes in the form of a part magazine, part yearbook,” Lou said. “Our goal is to review every resource available for students on campus. It's a way for new students to navigate NEIU, and it's a way for current students to maximize their college experience.”

Lou, an English major, said launching a new publication is challenging, but worth it because she and the students working on it feel it will be a great resource for the University community. 

“We want to provide student commentary wherever we can for these little tidbits of things that you might not be able to find on the University website, like what are the busiest hours of a certain space,” said Lou. “In order to do that, it's a lot of work. You have to put in the time and talk to a lot of people.”

Roberts is majoring in Human Resource Development. He is the Production Director for the Student Media Board. He also designed the first issue of Fem Design, a student media publication that focuses on fashion and everything the industry entails, from beauty standards to the ecological impacts of fast fashion and everything in between.

“Many students worked hard to get these publications to the standards of being awarded/recognized by ACP,” Roberts said. “Many of the students working on these publications have school, work and families to attend to, but still put all of their effort in making these prints beautiful. Our students within the media board have so much love for their projects.”

In addition to the awards ceremony, students participated in one of eight workshop track sessions: Leadership, Reporting Across Platforms, Advanced Reporting with Investigative Reporters and Editors, Design, Advanced Multimedia Storytelling, Sports Reporting, Business/Advertising or Advisers.  

Lozada (B.A. ’25 Anthropology, minors in Journalism and Communication, Media and Theatre (CMT)) is currently a second-year graduate student in CMT.  She was part of the Advanced Reporting track. Lozada is currently the Campus Life Editor for the NEIU Independent, the University’s student-run newspaper. Previously, she was the publication’s Editor-in-Chief. She has also worked in Community Relations and social media roles within the Student Media Board.  

“I attended the conference because I wanted to find more opportunities in order to further my education in terms of journalism,” said Lozada. “It was wonderful to have workshops learning about data journalism and getting more involved in that aspect, especially with the increase of social media journalism.”

Gutierrez, a senior at Northeastern studying CMT, chose to take the Multimedia Storytelling track.  

“I used to not consider myself a journalist,” said Guiterrez, who’s a co-founder of the Lyric Lounge, Northeastern’s multimedia open expression studio. “After this conference, I consider myself a video journalist. Emotions drive me. Stories drive me. I most definitely gained experience with reporting and how to effectively construct a narrative. The advisors were knowledgeable and so helpful. They were really experts in their crafts.”

Dennis Sagel is the Associate Director of Student-led Media Production. He said the ACP College Media Mega Workshop is just one of several media conferences students are able to attend each year through the Student Media Board and he is always pleased when the hard work of Northeastern students is recognized.

“It’s always a happy occasion to see our students acclaimed for the amount of work, effort and creativity they put into what they’re doing here,” Sagel said. “I hope that everybody knows that these students work hard, long hours getting to know our environment, community and reflecting the ideas, needs, critiques, questions, celebrations and potential solutions that our community members would like to offer into the communal dialogue that we all share.”

Northeastern students interested in joining a student media publication can complete the Student Media Interest Form. Questions can be directed to d-sagel@neiu.edu or (773) 442-4644.

Top photo: (From left to right) Daniel Gutierrez, Jiaming Lou, Leslie Lozada and Ryland Roberts at the 2026 Associated Collegiate Press College Media Mega Workshop. Three of them are holding awards.