UNC Asheville’s student news outlet The Blue Banner and literary journal Headwaters won 13 awards at the annual ’s (NCCMA) conference held February 28 at Elon University.

The conference featured breakout sessions and awards presentations. Each year the NCCMA co-hosts the conference with different college campuses in the state. In total, 19 colleges and universities from across North Carolina attended the conference.

 received the following awards for the 2025 calendar year:

• First place for Cartoon: Elliot Myrus, 

• Second place for News Writing: Chrisoula Theodorou, 

• Third place for News Writing: Adam Hetland, 

• Third place for Sports Writing: Sage Branch, 

• Third Place for Opinion Writing: Kellan (Ashton) Harrison 

• Third Place for Digital Storytelling: Mavie Marcos, 

• Honorable mention in Sports Writing: Isabel Richardson, 

• Honorable mention in Feature Writing: 

• Honorable mention in Opinion Writing: Alexandrea Thompson, 

• Honorable mention in Digital Storytelling: 

• A Best of Show in Online News: 

• A Best of Show in Newspapers (small): 

 received the following awards for 2025:

• Honorable mention in Nonfiction: Clementine Hyatt, 

About UNC Asheville

Founded in 1927, UNC Asheville is a proud member of the University of North Carolina System. With award-winning faculty, small class sizes, and 60+ academic programs in the natural sciences, human sciences, humanities, arts, and social sciences, the University is recognized for its robust paid internship programs to prepare students to immediately enter the workforce. In the US News & World Report 2025 edition of Best Colleges, UNC Asheville is ranked No. #9 in Top Public Schools, and No. #7 in Princeton Review’s 2025 Top 50 Guide to Green Colleges. Known as the Bulldogs, UNC Asheville student-athletes compete in 16 NCAA Division I Teams in the Big South Conference. For more information, please visit: www.unca.edu.

About the North Carolina College Media Association

The NCCMA, sponsored by the UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication at ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ-Chapel Hill, offers a one-day conference on a different campus each year to hold educational workshops and recognize outstanding work from the state’s student newspapers, yearbooks, and online news organizations.

For more information, contact the Blue Banner’s faculty adviser and Senior Lecturer of Mass Communication, Michael Gouge, at 828.232.2423 or mgouge@unca.edu.