Two The Louisian Courier (TLC) scribes captured the top spot in the recently concluded National Webinars and Writing Competitions in Journalism conducted by the Organization of Student Services Educators, Incorporated (OSSEI) on Dec. 12 and 19, 2020 via Zoom Meeting.
In a Facebook post of OSSEI, Editor-in-Chief Bosch Taylan and Managing Editor Wendel Viernes were hailed as champions in Feature Writing English and News Writing Filipino, respectively.
A déjà vu was felt by the former NSPC champion Viernes as he was again declared as the best news writer in the competition.
“Believe in what you write so that your readers may believe in you, too. My goal is to make them informed, engaged, and critical in the prevailing issues of the society because if they are ignorant, it will corrupt their mind,” Viernes said when asked about his message to aspiring news writers.
Taylan, on the other hand, also claimed first place in the same online writing competition with his feature article entitled “COVID-19 Is Not a Death Sentence—To Some.” He used a different angle in his write-up that secured him the highest place in the category.
“We were tasked to write a news feature article about the inspirational story of the recovery of the first Filipino COVID-19 patient in the country. But I felt compelled to write a story that revolves around another aspect of his identity: his economic status—him being a Filipino tax lawyer. I wanted my piece to narrate his recovery journey as a rich man and to paint it side by side with the COVID-19 situation for poor Filipinos,” Taylan explained.
Participated by different collegiate schools and universities all over the country, the National Webinars and Writing Competitions in Journalism of OSSEI focused on the challenges of journalism in the “new normal.”
Professor Ben Domingo, Jr., CHED Technical Committee in Journalism; Jimmy Domingo, lecturer at University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman and De La Salle University (DLSU); Joyce Pañares, news editor at Manila Standard; and Melvin Gascon, reporter at Philippine Daily Inquirer, were invited as speakers and judges in the said writing competitions.
TLC is the official collegiate publication of the University of Saint Louis.
