Utica University Student Reporters and Alumni Win Five Syracuse Press Club Awards
Utica University student reporters and alumni won five Syracuse Press Club Awards at the organization’s 2025 Professional Recognition Awards Dinner on Saturday, May 3, 2025.
Breannan O’Hara (Journalism Minor, ’24) won an Honorable Mention in the Student – Print/Digital News Story category for her Tangerine story “Bear euthanizations sparks call for action among Old Forge residents.” O’Hara is a former Editor-in-Chief of The Tangerine.
Diana Sidorevich Nortje (Communication and Media, ’24) won an Honorable Mention in the Student – Print/Digital Feature Story category for her Tangerine story “Jeffrey Siegel to perform Keyboard Conversations at Munson on March 24.” Nortje is a former Managing Editor of TheTangerine.
Francis Tavino (Communication and Media, ’23) won an Honorable Mention in the Television – Special Program category for his work on the WCNY program Behind The Woman: Felisha Legette-Jack. He shares this award with Jenna Fields, Sharlene Richards, Doug Moreau, and Juhanna Rogers. Tavino is a former General Manager of UticaTV.
Thomas Caputo (Communication & Media, ‘22) won an Honorable Mention in the Print/Digital News – News Feature or Series category for his work on the DailySentinel series “Community in Crisis: Utica mourns death of 13-year-old Nyah Mway.” He shares this award with John Clifford, Nancy L. Ford and Sean I. Mills. Caputo is a former Staff Writer and Editor for TheTangerine.
James McClendon (Journalism, ‘17) won second place in the Print/Digital News – Spot News category for his work on the Syracuse.com/Post-Standard story “Tornado tears through Rome.” He shares this award with Glenn Coin, Rylee Kirk, Jon Moss, and N. Scott Trimble. McClendon is a former Writer and Editor-In-Chief for TheTangerine. This is his second Syracuse Press Club Award. He won second place in the College Print Feature category for his Tangerine story, “Greg Roberts: Forever A Pioneer,” in 2017.
Utica University Communication & Media/Tangerine students won 18 Syracuse Press Club Awards and Scholarships between 2017 and 2024. With this year’s awards, the Syracuse Press Club Award and Scholarship total for Utica University students and alumni increases to 23 since 2017.
The Syracuse Press Club consists of journalists, educators, students and communications professionals working in local Central New York print, radio, television and digital media. Syracuse Press Club Awards are open to journalists working in and/or published within the following 21 counties of New York State: Onondaga, Madison, Cortland, Cayuga, Oswego, Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Lewis, Herkimer, Oneida, Otsego, Delaware, Chenango, Broome, Tompkins and Seneca; and as far west as State Route 14 in Tioga, Chemung, Wayne, Schuyler and Yates counties. Judges from partner press clubs in California, Florida, Idaho, Louisiana, Ohio, Texas and Wisconsin review and rank the top entries for each category.
The Utica University Communication and Media Department prepares students for careers in a variety of fields by helping them develop foundational and advanced communication skills. The program offers a major in Communication & Media with nine different areas of concentration and nine related minors. The Communication & Media Department houses The Tangerine student newspaper, the campus television outlet UticaTV, and the student radio station WPNR-FM. The Department also hosts Films of Thursday – a free, eclectic film series that is open to the public – and helps support Utica University’s Theatrical Productions.
For more information about the Communication and Media program contact Paul J. MacArthur (pmacart@utica.edu).
I would like to see logins and resources for:
For a general list of frequently used logins, you can also visit our logins page.