The American Scholastic Press Association announced its 2011-2012 awards on April 13, and The Impact was a winner of two awards – a first place staff award and first place individual award for outstanding writing.

The Impact was one of five colleges to win an award in the OUTSTANDING STORY (non-school related) category.

Jessi Rucker won first place honors for her story, “Revisiting Vietnam,” which centered on her experiences of traveling though Southeast Asia and the impressions of a Vietnam War veteran. The story ran in May of 2011.

The Impact as a staff also won a first award for general excellence. Judges grade all issues of the newspaper from January to December and place them in one of five categories for general excellence – First, Second, Third, Honorable Mention or Unranked. This is The Impact’s fifth consecutive year winning a First Place General Excellence Award.

Other colleges that placed in the OUTSTANDING STORY category were  Beacon Wilkes University (“Wilkes Responds to PSU Scandal”), Eastern University (“Wailing Wall Street”), Sonoma State University (CFA and CSU Negotiation at Impasse”) and Monmouth University (“Facebook”).