Kellogg Community College’s student Bruin News editor has been awarded honors from the Michigan Community College Press Association for an article about phone addiction, written for KCC’s online student newspaper last fall.
Jaiden Cowles, 23, of Battle Creek, won Honorable Mention honors in the Solution-based Journalism category of the MCCPA’s annual awards competition, the winners of which were announced on April 5.
Cowles is a 2020 graduate of Lakeview High School continuing her studies after graduating from KCC last spring with an Associate in General Studies degree.
Her award-winning story, titled “Can you be ‘addicted’ to your phone?,” covered the phenomenon of phone addiction and its impact on mental health. The article was first published on KCC’s student Bruin News website in October 2024 and appears in a soon-to-be published print supplement to the publication to be distributed on campus.
The MCCPA hosts an annual competition for community college journalists in Michigan every spring, offering awards across a variety of journalism-related categories with winners selected by judges with years of experience in the industry. The awards are announced annually during the organization’s annual spring conference, which is hosted at Central Michigan University.
The Solution-based Journalism category includes stories that focus on a social issue and a response to it. A winning story must be “anchored in credible evidence and explain how or why responses are working or not working,” according to the MCCPA.
The category this year was judged by Joan Ramm, retired advisor for Delta College’s Delta Collegiate. In her judge’s comments, Ramm said Cowles’ story was “a great topic for this category” with a variety of creative suggestions.
Cowles, who is planning on transferring to Michigan State University to major in Communication, has been Bruin News editor since the Fall 2023 semester but has written articles for the publication since 2021, when she was taking JOUR 112: News Writing at the College. She joins several recent KCC journalism students in receiving awards from the MCCPA over the past few years.
Last year, JOUR 112 student Emily Martens won Third Place in the News Story category. In 2022, journalism students Brian Bloom and Abbey Peters won Honorable Mention awards in the Sports News Story category, and in 2021 Bruin News Editor Sarah Hubbard took Third Place for Journalist of the Year.
The Bruin News can be read online at thebruinnews.com.
For more news about Kellogg Community College, view our latest press releases online at https://daily.kellogg.edu/category/news-releases.