Albion Pleiad named top online newspaper, wins nine awards fromMichigan Press Association
Albion Pleiad staff gathered in the Kellogg Center Loft on April 23, 2025, for an end-of-year celebration, recognizing their work and honoring MPA award nominees. Kate Walsh ‘88, editor-in-chief of HOUR Detroit magazine and this year’s guest speaker, shared her insights with the team.
The Albion Pleiad, Albion College’s student-run newspaper, was named the top online newspaper in Division 2 of the 2024 Michigan Press Association (MPA) Better College Newspaper Contest, announced on May 8, 2025. The Pleiad earned nine awards overall in the contest.
The annual contest, judged this year by members of the Wisconsin Press Association (it’s judged each year by a different state’s press association), honors excellence in student journalism across three divisions: Division 1 for newspapers publishing more than weekly, Division 2 for weekly publications, and Division 3 for two-year colleges or less-than-weekly publications. This year, 17 college newspapers submitted 536 entries.
The Pleiad took first place in the highly competitive Online Newspaper Category in Division 2, an impressive accomplishment for the publication, which was up against entries from institutions across the state. This is the second year The Pleiad has entered the Online Newspaper Category, moving up from its third-place finish last year.
Among the individual awards, Bonnie Lord ’26 earned first place in Sports News/Features for her piece, “Albion Athletics in the Field of Sustainability,” which competed against 21 other entries in Division 2. Seiji McSwain tied for first place in the Sports Column category for his opinion piece, “Fair Shots: Closing the Gap in the WNBA.”
Other notable awards included Naima Davenport ’25, who received second place in the News Column Category for “From Dallas to Albion: Language’s Importance as an Afro-Latine,” and Hannah Fathman ’26, who took second place in Feature Photo for her work accompanying “Opinion: Music Through the Seasons; Listen to the Stuff that Makes You Feel.”
Additional winners from The Pleiad include:
- Lindsay Ratcliffe ’25 – Third place, Best Writer (portfolio)
- Bonnie Lord ’26 – Third place, Original Cartoon (portfolio)
- Isaiah May ’25 – Third place, Sports Column for “Grass vs Turf: What the Sports World Has to Say”
- Lindsay Ratcliffe ’25 – Third place, News Column for “Albion College Has a Long Way to Go Before it Can Truly Claim Accessibility”
Since its first entries in 2005, The Pleiad has consistently earned recognition from the MPA, amassing a total of 78 awards to date, with 45 of those coming since 2018. This year’s nine awards mark the publication’s second-highest total in a single contest year.
Members of The Pleiad pose for a photo in their offices in the Kellogg Center.
“Receiving MPA awards is always a confidence boost, it is a signal that we are doing good journalism. Winning first place for online newspaper was an especially meaningful win, as it encompasses the work the Pleiad did over the course of the ’23-’24 academic year,” said Bella Bakeman ’25, outgoing editor-in-chief.
“As a future educator, nothing could have prepared me better to teach students how to build their reading and writing skills than doing the same with a group of student journalists,” added Bakeman, who admits that working on The Pleiad staff at Albion has had a major impact on her life.
For more information about The Pleiad and to read the award-winning pieces, visit albionpleiad.com.
