Five students from Louisiana Tech’s journalism department found their writing niche as they received awards from the Southeast Journalism Conference. The Southeast Journalism Conference consists of eight participating states and has a yearly conference with a Best of the South competition, where students submit work prior to the conference, and an on-site competition. In the Best of the South competition, Rebecca Alvarez, a senior from El Paso, Texas, received third place for special event reporting, and Amie Rolland, who graduated in fall 2012, received third place in column writing. “We are proud of the achievements of our students in this year’s SEJC Best of the South and onsite competitions,” said Dr. Reginald Owens, chair of the journalism department. “Their successes clearly show that we can compete against the best and win.” In the on-site competition, Patrick Boyd, a senior from Choudrant, received first place in news writing, and Hannah Schilling, a junior from Bossier City, also received first place in communication law. Grace Moore, a junior from Birmingham, Ala., won second place in entertainment writing. “I am particularly heartened that our students compete well against students in programs with far more resources than we have,” Owens said. “It is important to know that most of the work that The Tech Talk students complete is done on deadline, either here every week publishing a newspaper or in the online competition, where the deadline pressure is much more intense.” The annual conference was held Feb. 21-23 at Union University in Jackson, Tenn.