ARLINGTON, Texas—The Texas Intercollegiate Press Association recognized Arlington Sentinel for excellence in journalism at the association’s just-concluded annual conference.
The Sentinel’s awards included honors for a general news multimedia story, a sports column and in-depth reporting.
“We didn’t launch the Sentinel to win awards, but I’m grateful to see the hard work of our students recognized,” Sentinel adviser and journalism senior lecturer Geoff Campbell said. “Student-powered reporting can be an essential element in narrowing news coverage gaps in news desert communities like Arlington.”
The Sentinel’s Lorelai Hofer won second place honors in the general news multimedia story category for her coverage of the Wesley Foundation’s Día de los Muertos celebration. Hofer’s story package included a 19-photo gallery and an audio piece exploring mariachi music.
In the sports column category, the Sentinel’s Alberto Gomez received honorable mention for his piece on the history of the University of Texas at Arlington’s now-defunct football team. Gomez’s piece was part of the Sentinel’s collaboration with University of Texas at Arlington Libraries Special Collections on its Arlington 150 series to commemorate Arlington’s sesquicentennial.
In addition, the Sentinel’s Jessica Lutka, Karissa Chagoya and Diana Garcia earned honorable mention in the in-depth reporting category for their piece exploring a century-old civil engineering project in Japan’s Niigata Prefecture and its relevance locally as DFW governments spend millions of dollars on climate resilience projects.
The climate story was produced as part of a service-learning project with Fort Worth Sister Cities International and the Nagaoka International Exchange Association during a 2025 study abroad class in Japan. Additional reporting for the piece was provided by Lisa-Marie Akindayomi, Amaya Bean, Wilson Hasty, Chanel Le, Haylee Jenkins, Elvis Martinez-Cartagena, Isaias Martinez, Alyssa Morales, Andrew Norton, Jessyann Perez, Manhoisiam Tungnung, Xitlalic Valles and Celeste Vazquez. The story package included a video story, three photo galleries, original artwork and infographics.
The Arlington Sentinel was established in spring 2022 to serve news desert communities in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex and to provide UTA journalism students with experiential learning opportunities in community journalism. Originally known as The Lone Star Sentinel, this initiative now focuses on Arlington, Texas. In fall 2023, the effort expanded to include work by UTA television broadcast students.
