Chronicle continues success in Nashville

The Marlin Chronicle, for the third year in a row, placed in the “Best in Show” competition held at the annual College Media Advisors/Associated Collegiate Press National College Media Convention that was held in Nashville, Tenn. Nov. 3-7. In this year’s national competition, The Marlin Chronicle placed fourth in its category.

“Its terrific for a school of our size to achieve so consistently this way against this kind of intense national competition,” said Dr. Bill Ruehlmann, advisor of The Marlin Chronicle. “It speaks to the consistent strength of the entire staff.”

“I was excited that I was chosen to be an editor for this year,” said senior Justin Beavers, co-features editor. “And I’m proud to have contributed to an award-winning paper and to be a part of such a great staff.”

Nashville was the place to be for more than 2700 student journalists and advisors from across the country. Junior Co-Features Editor Heather Skrobacki, sophomore Opinion Editor Holly Smallman, junior Co-Sports Editor Megan Zirkle, Beavers and Ruehlmann partook in all of the journalism festivities.

“I thought the trip was educational and yet fun at the same time,” said Zirkle. “I learned a lot of stuff about layout and design, and it can help the newspaper. It was fun because the sessions we were going to were things that I’m interested in, and the people I went with were fun to hang out with, and we just had a good time.”

The convention took place at the Renaissance Hotel and Nashville Convention Center located in the heart of the city. Students and advisers were given the opportunity to attend various workshops. Among those attended by The Marlin Chronicle were a feature writing session, typography, sports reporting, careers in journalism, graphic design and advertising.

“I enjoyed the typography session the most because I learned the meaning behind the form and what different fonts can create different moods,” said Skrobacki.

“The first two I went to were ‘Conducting the Perfect Interview’ and ‘Writing Leads That Don’t Suck,’” said Beavers. “Those workshops made me a step closer to becoming a better journalist.”

In addition to learning various aspects of journalism from people who have worked in the field, students had the opportunity to talk to students from other schools and to compare papers. “I think it gives me ideas to bring home and make the paper dance,” said Skrobacki.

During the convention, The Marlin Chronicle was critiqued by an outside source that was not familiar to Virginia Wesleyan or to the paper. David Swartzlander from Doane College sat with the editors and went through past issues.

“The critique was interesting because it gave us insight about things that we need to change about our paper,” said Smallman. “He was fair, but a lot of things he told us to make changes about were preferences and not things that had to be absolutely done.”

“What I took to heart is that maybe we should include ads in The Chronicle,” said Beavers. “If we are going to be designing pages in the real world with ads, which we will be, now is a good time to start doing it.”

Even though the convention was the main focus of the trip, students and advisers got the chance to have a little fun with a concert and a test-drive. On Friday, Nov. 5, Good Morning America kicked off its Women-Who-Rock series with a Shania Twain concert. Filming was live and hosts Diane Sawyer and Robin Roberts entertained the crowd in the 44-degree weather prior to Twain taking the stage. Smallman, Skrobacki and Zirkle woke up at 5 a.m. to try and get a good spot for the concert, but many others had the same idea.

A huge crowd had already accumulated by the time they left the hotel.

“Shania was worth the wait and the coldness,” said Zirkle. “I was excited to see her and Billy [Currington] and Diane Sawyer and Robin Roberts.”

“I’m not really that big of fan of country music, but I do like Shania Twain,” said Smallman. “It was early in the morning and cold, but it was worth it.”

Ruehlmann joined the crowd later, but admits that he really didn’t know who was playing.

“It didn’t help when they told me it was Shania Twain,” Ruehlmann said. “I didn’t know her from Mark Twain. But she sure could sing.”

As one of the sponsors of the convention, Saturn had cars placed at different places in the hotel and a booth in the main meeting room to inform students about an opportunity to test drive a Saturn Ion on a course created in the Gaylord Entertainment Center parking lot on Saturday.

“I’m in the back seat, the Saturn guy is in the passenger seat and Megan’s in the driver’s seat,” said Beavers. “Somehow she got it started and then asked,‘What’s the clutch for?’ The guy walked her through it somehow and we made it, but she stalled out three times in the first five feet of the course. I hope the clutches are under warranty.”

“After stalling the first two times, I asked the guy if he wanted me to turn the car off,” said Zirkle. “He said ‘No, try it one more time. Third time’s the charm.’ And boy was he right. I made it!”