Benguet State University student journalists of the Mountain Collegian (MC) publication clinched spots in the different competition categories in this year’s 19th Luzonwide Higher Education Press Conference (LHEPC) held at Villa Caceres Hotel, Naga City from March 19-21, 2024.

Competing against the different Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Luzon, MC garnered eight individual and four group awards. In the Sports Writing competition, Kimberly Gail Germano seized first place in the Filipino category, while Ruth Naimes earned 8th place in the English category. For the Copyreading competition, Lhiezel Joy Ramos spots 4th place in the Filipino category, and Armi Jay Paragas in 8th place English category. Moreover, Aubrey Mendegorin obtained 4th place in the Editorial Writing-Filipino category, and Brejay Adrian Estoesta in 7th place for the Comicstrip Drawing-English category.

Finally, Coren Joy Adchao bagged two awards as the 10th placer in both the News Writing and Poetry Writing English categories.

Additionally, among the other 145 participating student publications, MC was recognized as the 5th Best Editorial Page and the 9th Best Feature Page for the tabloid publications category. It also came 7th as Best Literary Page and 8th as Best Feature Page in the newsletter publication category.

To add, the Mountain Collegian publication also demonstrated excellence when it was hailed as the overall champ in the recently conducted 22nd Regional Higher Education Press Conference at Kalinga State University, Tabuk City, Kalinga from February 28-March 1, 2024. Prior to the competition, Jaime Alonzo Bernabe II, a Developmental Communication student and MC member, conveyed his hope “to draw out the strength of Cordillera in terms of writing… and get to be on par with the different regions in Southern Luzon” through activities such as the 19th LHEPC competition.

Richard Giye, one of the MC advisers further said, “We’re glad to represent BSU and the region through the Mountain Collegian. The pressure is there but we know that throughout the years, the university has been supporting us for sixty years now.”

The MC publication is currently under the supervision of advisers Karen O. Laking and Richard Giye.//CANapiloy