NCSMA director to receive educator of the year award

Monica Hill — director of the North Carolina Scholastic Media Association (NCSMA), which is based in the school — will receive the Scholastic Journalism Division’s David Adams Journalism Educator of the Year Award during the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) convention in Washington, D.C., Aug. 8-11.

The award is given annually to recognize a division member for his or her outstanding performance in the university classroom and in scholastic journalism workshops and conferences.

“Colleagues from across the country seek Monica’s input and engagement for the unique attributes she brings to their organizations: level-headedness, an unflagging work ethic, Southern-style diplomacy, and an intimate knowledge of the issues facing journalism students and advisers,” said Peter Bobkowski, assistant professor at the University of Kansas who worked as Hill’s graduate assistant at UNC in 2006.

Hill’s nomination described her as an innovative collaborator, taking advantage of unique opportunities to expand the educational options for journalism students in North Carolina and across the country. She has partnered with others at the UNC Hussman School and across North Carolina to launch three new initiatives:

• Chuck Stone Program for Diversity in Education and Media, which brings together rising high school seniors for an intensive, all expenses-paid, one-week multimedia- training program; 
• North Carolina College Media Association, which sponsors an annual conference and a slate of contests for college journalists and advisers in the state; 
• Carolina Sports Journalism Camp, which provides aspiring high school sports journalists with weeklong college-level training in sports writing and media production.

In addition to the programs mentioned above, Hill annually coordinates:

• The North Carolina Scholastic Media Institute, a four-day summer workshop for high school students to receive instruction in the following categories: newspaper, yearbook, literary magazine, online, photojournalism, design or TV news;
• Six regional workshops for advisers and students held at locations across North Carolina;
• A summer fellowship program for high school journalism teachers held at the UNC Hussman School.

In November 2012, Hill helped Frank LoMonte from the Student Press Law Center plan a two-day conference, “Hazelwood: A 25-year Retrospective of Student First Amendment Rights,” that explored the U.S. Supreme Court’s Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier decision that curtailed student free speech rights. Other sponsors included Education Week, Student Press Law Center, UNC’s Center for Media Law and Policy and UNC’s First Amendment Law Review.

Hill has coordinated outside journalism competitions sponsored by the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association, the Society of American Travel Writers and the N.C. Tourism Travel Writing Contest.

Each year she also helps the Carolina Association of Black Journalists (CABJ) students plan and promote a minority workshop for high school students.

Over the past five years, she has served on the board of directors of the National Scholastic Press Association to better position the organization to provide support to publication staffs across the nation.

Hill also has been honored with the Gold Key by the Columbia Scholastic Press Association for outstanding service to scholastic journalism.