Submitted Photo The Red & Green editorial staff at work in the newspaper office earlier this year.

The Red & Green student newspaper at Minot State University has won a first-place American Scholastic Press Association Scholastic Newspaper Award for the second year in a row. The award for the 2021-22 school year was granted in the category for colleges or universities with an enrollment more than 2,500.

“It’s just really exciting for us, especially because this is only our second year with a semi-new editorial staff,” said Kylie Koontz, the editor of the newspaper.

The editorial staff included Miya Smalls, assistant editor; Janie Wunderlich, social media director; Philip Green, sports editor; Hussain Abu-Lamzi, features editor; Divine Daminabo and Liela Koguchi, both in social media content. Staff writers included Venissa Adeti, Saif Khan, Alex Koontz, Jasmine Rogers, Sabah Sarwar, Travis Smith, Destiny Stanton, Yuden Zongtenpa, Parker Striha, Jordan Rodriguez, Juan Gutierrez, and Johann Eben. Photographers included Vanessa Adeti, Cassidy Holmes, Liela Koguchi, Nixie Ludeke, Chinaza Obi, and Parker Striha. The comic strip artist is Jessica Lee.

Koontz, a junior majoring in broadcasting and professional communication, with the journalism option, from Earlville, Illinois, said this was her first year as editor. She had previously served as an assistant editor.

She said her staff has worked hard and she is proud of the content they produced, including an issue that focused on Native American Heritage Month.

“I hope we can continue earning those kinds of awards,” she said.

She said the advisors have also been a great source of help.

“”It is remarkable to see the Red & Green still going strong on campus,” said advisor Katy Allers. “I wrote for the paper as a freshman at Minot State many years ago and it is still an outstanding newspaper. Things have changed immensely since the ’80s. In addition to print, the students now create digital versions and have a strong presence on social media. I couldn’t ask for a better group of students and they are definitely deserving of this award!”