Bucks County Community College’s student newspaper, The Centurion, won a record 22 awards in the statewide 2024 Student Keystone Media Awards competition, including firsts in categories like general news, public service/enterprise reporting, sportswriting and video news.
Since 2010, The Centurion has won more than 180 awards, making it one of the most-honored student newspapers in Pennsylvania. This year’s awards were for work done in the spring and fall 2023 semesters. The paper is produced mostly by students in the college’s journalism program, though non-journalism majors are also welcome to take part.
The Student Keystone Media Awards are administered by the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association. The Centurion competes in Division III for two-year colleges.
Raeanne Raccagno, a 20-year-old journalism major and the editor-in-chief of The Centurion, said, “My biggest goal for the paper has been for us to cover a diverse range of topics. I communicated that with the staff, and they answered with no problem. We added some new content to the paper as well this academic year like comics, more column writing and word games.”
Raccagno said the paper is still trying to attract readers on campus. “I’m not sure if it’s ‘cause students don’t expect there to be a paper newspaper, but most students will have no idea about us,” Raccagno said. “I always hear I want to hear about what’s going on at campuses and we’re the place to do that.”
Raccagno added that at Bucks, “There are so many impressive departments with experienced professors on campus and they all deserve to have a story.”
Tony Rogers, Bucks’ journalism professor and the paper’s faculty advisor said, “Between environmental contaminants being found in several campus buildings and the sudden resignation of the college’s president, this has been a tumultuous year at Bucks. Our students have covered all these events and many others with real professionalism, and I’m extremely proud of the work they’ve done.”
The Centurion website is located at bucks-news.com and the Instagram is @centurion_bucks. The paper is distributed across the College’s three campuses in Newtown, Bristol, and Perkasie. The Centurion is financially independent.
For more information about The Centurion or the College’s journalism program, go to bucks.edu/journalism or email Tony.Rogers@bucks.edu.
The awards will be presented during a on April 11 in Harrisburg.
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