The Observer wins 2nd in state competition
The Observer newspaper staff was awarded 2nd place in the Best of Show competition at the 2020 Illinois Community College Journalism Association (ICCJA) fall conference. The ICCJA conference was held virtually this year due to the pandemic.
The fall Best of Show is typically awarded to the staff who was judged to have had the best single print issue from the previous semester. However, all Illinois community colleges shutting down in-person instruction in mid-March, so each school’s website were judged for the 2020 award.
At the fall 2019 conference, the staff also won 2nd place, and in 2018, the Observer took 3rd place.
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![[FILE PHOTO] The November print edition gets passed around during an Observer pitch meeting.](https://elginobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/newspaper-600x400.jpg)
![[FILE PHOTO] Student life vans, reserved for trips and other uses, are parked outside Building F, on May 6, 2026. Student life only have one wheelchair accessible van out of all the vans available, making trips that need to accommodate a disabled student challenging.](https://elginobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/reversednegatives-06514-600x400.jpg)
![[File photo] First semester Industrial Engineer Student Josiah Matthews discusses how he enjoys the challenges that come with complex math problems with staff writer Viviana Avila. Photo Taken in the D building Hallway](https://elginobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Josiah-Matthews-1-Math-600x400.jpg)
