Montgomery County Community College Student Wins Keystone Press Award

By Montgomery County Community College for Patch

Sara Wilkerson of King of Prussia was shocked to hear that she won a First Place Student Keystone Press Award from the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association. It’s understandable – she didn’t even know she was nominated.

The Montgomery County Community College student was sleeping in on a Tuesday morning when she started receiving e-mail messages of congratulations from fellow students and faculty.

She found out that she was nominated for the award by Gail Ramsey, a Communications faculty member and advisor for The Montgazette, the College’s student newspaper. “It was a great way to wake up in the morning,” Wilkerson said.

Wilkerson earned top prize in the Feature Story category for a story she wrote for The Montgazette, on author Jacqueline Woodson’s visit to MCCC in December 2016. It was only the second story the Media Studies major wrote for the paper.

As an award recipient, Wilkerson will be honored on April 12 at the Student Keystone Press Awards luncheon during the America East Media Business & Technology Conference in Hershey.

Wilkerson has come a long way since writing the story that earned her the award. She will take over as editor-in-chief of The Montgazette at the end of the spring semester. This won’t be her first time at the helm of a newspaper, however. The 2016 graduate of Upper Merion Area High School was editor of her high school newspaper, The Viking Call, where she managed a staff of 60.

“This is what I want to do with the rest of my life,” Wilkerson said. “I want to write, I want to edit, I want to be a leader. I can go on forever about what I want to do, but I’ve always loved journalism.”

Image via Montgomery County Community College