As The Daily Toreador and La Ventana continue to represent life on Texas Tech’s campus through their coverage, they remain encouraged by the slew of awards they received at the Fall National College Media Convention.

From Wednesday, Oct. 25, to Sunday, Oct. 29, the convention was hosted by the Associated Collegiate Press and the College Media Association in Dallas.

The convention features many opportunities for members of student-run publications to further invest in their work, including the chance to be recognized in several award ceremonies, according to the convention’s website.

The DT and La Ventana, Tech’s student-designed yearbook, were among some of the collegiate newspapers and yearbooks recognized during the convention.

La Ventana received a Pacemaker — the Associated Collegiate Press’s most prestigious award — for the yearbook created by former editor Davian Hopkins during the 2015-2016 academic year.

Current La Ventana Editor Anthony Estolano said it inspires him to see the yearbook being recognized in such a significant way.

“It pushes us to keep producing awesome content and especially with this year’s book,” Estolano said. “What we’re trying to do is push a lot of online content to make people know there is a yearbook presence on campus.”

Michael Cantu, The DT’s Opinions Editor and a senior electronic media and communication major from New Deal, placed second in ACP’s Best of Show competition within the “Story of the Year: Diversity Series” category.

While Cantu said he was surprised and honored to discover that his story — titled “Defining Decades” — was not only a contender in the competition but also placed second, he said the other two writers — Akhila Reddy and Kirby Warner — who contributed to the package deserve equal merit and recognition.

Such recognition helps remind writers that their work is important, he said.

“When you win something like that, it gives you a better feel of the fact that we’re not just writing the everyday things, the everyday stories,” Cantu said. “We’re adding a component to it that gives it a little bit more creativity than it would on a regular basis.”

In addition to the second-place victory of “Defining Decades,” the entire newspaper produced by The DT’s staff following the shooting of Tech Police Officer Floyd East Jr. placed third in the ACP’s “Best of Show: Newspaper Special Edition” category.

Titled “Techsans in Mourning,” the newspaper included photos by photographers Rachel Halloran, Dean Whitelaw and Horacio Peña. It also showcased photos taken by The DT’s Photo Editor Justin Rex, a senior electronic media and communication major from Houston.

“The Multimedia staff worked very hard that week, lost a lot of sleep and sacrificed a lot of time to make that come together,” Rex said. “So, to see that officer honored that way is very gratifying to us and hopefully helps keep his memory alive.”

Two other competition entries from The DT received Honorable Mention.

One of these was the longform story on sexual assault by former staff writer and photographer Ryan Ortegon. The story was recognized in the category of “Multimedia Story of the Year: Multimedia Feature.”

The second entry to receive Honorable Mention in the ACP Best of Show competition was former cartoonist Nate Wells’ cartoon portfolio from the 2016-2017 academic year, which was entered in the “Cartooning: Editorial Cartoon” category.

In the College Media Association’s Best of Collegiate Design Awards, The DT was recognized twice and the La Ventana was recognized three times.

Estolano’s front page design for a December edition of The DT placed second in the category of “Special-Section Cover.”

“It was cool to see that cover win a design award because it was just sort of a last-minute design,” he said. “I got inspired by just random doodles I was doing. I wasn’t expecting to win an award for it, but it was a fun package to make because it was a very cheerful time of year with it being Carol of Lights on campus, so it just lent itself to very joyful, cool Christmas design.”

Rex also received recognition for his sports photography when one of his football photos won third place in the “Sports Photo” category.

“It feels great to have, not just my work, but the work of the Daily Toreador recognized at that level,” Rex said. “We do a lot of hard work, and it’s nice to see it come to fruition.”

Finally, Hopkins was recognized thrice for the work his staff did in the 2015-2016 yearbook. Winning first place in the categories of “News Spread” and “Sport Spread,” La Ventana was already doing well before receiving one last award. In the category of “Cover,” the yearbook took second place.

Overall, Tech’s Department of Student Media left the Fall National College Media Convention with several awards in hand. In the spring, the ACP and the CMA will come together to host another round of award ceremonies.

Until then, Cantu said he would like to encourage The DT to keep up the good work.

“Dream no little dreams,” he said.